14 Years
by JustASmallTownGirl123
Summary: It's been 14 years since Ziva and Tony finally broke rule twelve.14 years since NCIS was hit with a tragic and devastating loss. 14 years since Tony and Ziva last saw each other. What will happen when their paths cross once again?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey all! So this is my first NCIS fic and I am desperate for some feedback. I've been getting up the courage to write an NCIS story for a while and when I finally got inspiration for a story that wasn't absolutely horrid I decided I would go ahead and give it a shot. As I said before I would love some feedback, good or bad but please no flaming. Now quit reading this author's note and read the actually story! ;)**

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><p>Chapter One<p>

Tony DiNozzo walked slowly into his classroom flipping on the lights and made his way to his desk. After acquiring a teaching degree ten years ago he had found a job in Virginia teaching eighth grade history. Tony was happy where he was in his life, though he sometimes yearned for the thrill and excitement that came with working at NCIS. He shook these thoughts from his head and turned on his computer, preparing for the first day of the school year. A day he both loved and hated. He enjoyed meeting his new students but in true Dinozzo form he dreaded having to wake up so early. He pulled up the syllabus he had been using for the past few years on his computer and set it to print two hundred copies so he wouldn't have to run to the office in the middle of the day to print out more.

Tony rubbed a hand over his tired eyes, waiting a moment before leaving his room and walking down the hallway to the office. He made small talk with the secretary and glanced around the room. Everything was in its usual place; the same old chairs were pushed against the wall opposite the secretary's desk and the teacher's mail area was still as cluttered as ever. But as he looked around the room his eyes stopped on a shelf that had been in the office for as long as he could remember. On it were little trinkets and jewelry that had been left behind the year before and had never been claimed. What had caught his eye though was a necklace. It was a gold chain and on the end of it hung the Star of David.

In an instant Tony could see her in his minds eye. Her dark brown hair hung down in ringlets, a white long-sleeved blouse and cargo pants hugged her body, the gold necklace hung around her neck. She smiled widely at him and he smiled to himself; for a moment he felt like the memory was real, but then the copier beeped and she was gone. Tony sighed grabbing his papers and headed back towards his room.

"This is going to be a long day." he muttered to himself.

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><p>"So if you could please have your parents sign this and get it turned in by the end of this week I would appreciate it." He said to his fourth period class after going through his syllabus.<p>

The bell rang shortly after he finished and the students filed quickly out of the classroom. Tony began walking towards his desk but stopped as he heard a scuffle outside his door, then what sounded like books being thrown to the floor. He turned back around and strode into the hall, finding a girl on the floor hurriedly scooping up her papers and books.

"Ha ha! Looks like Tali-ban is a klutz too!" A boy taunted from the end of the hall, but a look from Tony quickly shut him up and he continued on his way.

Tony bent down helped her gather her things. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, I just tripped." She answered looking up at him.

He could tell she was lying not only because her knees were skinned, but he could also see tears in the rims of her dark brown eyes. Eyes that suddenly looked extremely familiar to him. Tony looked her over and began to find even more familiarities, from her hair that was a sandy brown color rather than dark brown, but was still curly to her slight Israeli accent. He couldn't help but think of one woman.

Tony shook his head pushing these thoughts away. _C__'__mon__ DiNozzo __get__ a__ grip._

"Are you new here? I haven't seen you around before." He asked curiously.

"Yes, my Mom and I just moved back to Virginia this year. I was born here but my Mom thought I should spend a few years where she grew up, where my roots are." She answered, but her face began to grow red. "Sorry I didn't mean to tell you my life story, I should probably be getting to class." She stood up and Tony handed her the things he had picked up.

"It's fine. Where's your next class? I'll write you a pass since I kept you here."

She pulled her schedule out of her pocket and unfolded it with her free hand. "Um I'm going to history."

"Eighth grade?" he inquired.

"Yes."

"Well I won't need to write you a pass then, that's my class." Tony smiled gesturing towards his classroom.

She gave him a polite smile in return and walked into the room sitting down in an empty seat near the back of the room. Tony grabbed the stack of syllabuses off his desk and began passing them out. The bell rang and he quietly shut his door after having passed everything out, and then walked back to his desk to grab the attendance sheet.

"Now if I get your name wrong or you go by something else please let me know and I'll try to remember, but it will probably take me at least a week to get it right." Tony said as he walked to the front of the class.

"Ben Aster?"

"Here."

"Maddie Bell?"

"Here."

"Kaitlyn Binns?"

"Here."

"Thomas Butler?"

"Here."

"Nathan Daniels?"

"Here."

"Talia David?"

"Here, but I go by Tali and…" said the girl he had met in the hall, but she was interrupted by the class snickering. At first he didn't understand why they were laughing but then he made the connection to the name she had been called out in the hallway. "And my last name, it's pronounced Dahveed, not David."

There was yet another snicker, but Tony stifled it with a glare. He nodded at Tali and continued down the list, but for the rest of that period and the rest of that day his mind wasn't completely focused. Why? Because Ziva David's daughter was in his fifth period history class.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So all I have to say is wow! That was the largest review response for the first chapter of any of the fics I have ever posted! As so many of you were adamant that I got this next chapter up as quick as possible, I tried to do just that. Thanks for all your reviews and enjoy!**

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><p>Chapter Two<p>

Ziva David sat in her living room flipping through the channels on her TV trying to distract herself until Tali got home from school. She'd left work early so she could be home in time to greet Tali after her first day of school. They had only just moved into their two bedroom ranch style house three weeks ago after having spent the past thirteen years in Israel. Ziva now worked as a secretary at a law firm and although she wasn't completely happy with her job she knew she couldn't go back to her old one. Or anything like it, because it wouldn't be the same. Ziva knew she would always be comparing it to what used to be and that was something she just couldn't handle.

She pushed these thoughts from her mind as she finally heard the lock click in the front door and sat up craning her neck to see Tali come in. She saw the door swing open in the hallway, a blur that she assumed to be Tali stormed in, slammed the door shut, ran down the hall and Ziva flinched as she threw her own door closed. Frowning Ziva got up and made her way to her daughter's room knocking gingerly on the wooden door.

"Tali?" She asked hesitantly.

"Go away!" she yelled her voice muffled.

Ziva slowly opened the door to find Tali sprawled across her bed, head in her pillow and her book bag thrown to the floor its contents spilling out.

"_Motek,_what happened?" she asked sitting down on the bed, brushing Tali's hair out of her face.

"I mmphm mhph mmmph mmph."

"What?"

Tali sighed sitting up, "I want to go back home."

"This **is** our home _ahava_." She replied brushing tears off her daughter's cheek. "I take it school did not go well?"

"That is and understatement." Tali paused her chin wobbling as she tried to hold back tears. "_Ima_ they hate me. All of them, even the ones I thought looked nice. I felt like I was back in primary school. I don't know how many times I was pushed down today, but what was worst was the name calling. They were acting like five year olds."

"I am not sure that I want to know but what did they call you?" Ziva asked anger boiling up inside her.

"They called me Tali-ban." Her resolve finally broke and Tali began to sob.

Ziva engulfed her in a hug, resting her chin on Tali's head and rocked her back and forth. After a few minutes Tali sat back sniffing and rubbing her red eyes.

"I'm sorry you had a horrible day Tali." She smiled sadly. "But was there anything at all that was good?"

"Well during class everything was fine and most of my classes look like they're going to be really interesting. It was just those four minutes in between every period that made everything horrible." she explained getting off the bed to pick up her book bag.

Frowning Ziva continued, "Any nice teachers?"

"They were all pretty much the same." She paused setting her book bag on the shelf in her closet. "Except for my history teacher, he was really nice. A kid tripped me in the hall just outside his classroom and he came out and helped me pick up my stuff. And when the kids laughed when I told him he mispronounced my last name he gave them this like stare it was pretty cool. He was kind of funny too; he kept making references to all these old movies during class."

"Really like what?" Ziva inquired remembering someone else who had once quoted old classics as well.

"Well he was talking about his background and stuff and he told us how he was like obsessed with movies. So he asked us to just shot out some random word and he bet that from that single word he could make a movie reference. So this kid whose dad is a marine decided to say marine and Mr. D started quoting this movie called Full Metal Jacket. It was pretty cool." Tali said grinning for the first time since she'd been home.

Ziva smiled back though she was having a hard time focusing on what her daughter was saying as she remembered the last time she had talked about that movie.

"_I'm sorry the correct answer is Full Metal Jacket." He said as they rounded the corner._

"_That was not the best marine movie!" she retorted. "A few good men was."_

"_Based on the fact that I'm right, I'm overruling you." He countered grinning._

"So what's for dinner?" Tali asked interrupting her thoughts.

"What? Oh, um I was thinking of ordering in. Pizza or Chinese?" she answered.

"Pizza."

"Alright I'll go order now." Ziva said getting up to leave the room. "If you want I think I have that movie your teacher was talking about, we could watch it while we're eating?"

"Sounds fun, where is it?"

"It might be in one of the unpacked boxes downstairs." She answered making her way into the kitchen to find the number of the pizza place down the street.

Ziva found it and picked the cordless phone up off the counter, but just before punching in the last number something hit her. As she went through all the things Tali had told her about her history teacher there were two many similarities to one man that you could consider to be a coincidence. The movie references, the stare she had described that at one time he had begun to use when their boss had been on Hiatus. It all seemed so familiar.

"Hey Tal, what did you say your teacher's name was again?" Ziva called down to the basement, though she mentally kicked herself for doing so. There was no way it could be **him**, she was getting herself worked up over nothing.

"He told us to call him Mr. D because his name's kind of long, but his last name is DiNozzo." She answered walking into the kitchen, DVD in hand. "I'm pretty sure that's it but my schedule's right here."

Ziva had already begun to pale, but she took the schedule anyway and sure enough right beside fifth period history was his name,_ Anthony __DiNozzo_.

"Are you okay Mom?" Tali asked frowning.

"Yeah, yeah I'm perfectly fine. I just feel a little dizzy because I haven't eaten in a while so I'm going to go and pick up the pizza." She lied walking across the room to the door to the garage.

"But don't they deliver?"

"Yes, but they're pretty busy tonight and they said that if we wanted it sooner rather than later I should probably just go pick it up." She supplied quickly giving her daughter a kiss on the head. "I'll be back in no time."

"Okay then…" Tali said hesitantly as Ziva got in their car, opening the garage door before driving off.

Ziva tried to calm down as she came to the stop sign at the end of their road, closing her eyes she took a few deep breaths. After a minute she opened them and flipped on her turn signal, heading left towards Tali's school instead of turning right to go to the pizza place.

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><p><strong>AN: Cliffhanger! What do ya think? Reviews are appreciated!**

**P.S. I used some Hebrew terms in this chapter; Motek means honey, ahava means love or my love and Ima means mom. I also used a few lines from the episode _Tribes_from an episode of NCIS in 2008. Which the credit for that goes to Mr. Belisario of course :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey! So once again thank you all for reviewing, you guys are da bomb! Any who I realized that it would take Tony more than two years to get a teaching degree and find a job so I edited the first chapter so it says he got his teaching degree ten years ago. Just thought I would let you guys know in case you went back to that chapter and were like "Whoa when did this happen?" Okay so now that I've got that over with enjoy the next chapter of 14 Years!**

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><p>Chapter Three<p>

Tony glanced at his watch as he wrote the notes for the next day's lesson on the board. It was already four-thirty and most of the teachers and staff had already left, going home to see their families, but Tony had no family to rush home to, so he stayed. Just as he finished writing the last vocab word on the board, out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw her, leaning in the doorway of his room. Tony shook his head and blinked his eyes a few times moving over to another section of the board to copy down the next set of notes. He slashed a line under the title of the lesson but hesitated, his hand poised just an inch off the green slate. She was still there. Ever so slowly Tony turned his head and to his amazement she stayed there, a small smile on her lips and that familiar spark in her eyes.

"Ziva." He whispered, the piece of finger length chalk leaving his hand and breaking into a million dusty pieces as it hit the floor.

"Tony." She replied simply taking a few steps into his room.

Part of Tony, the larger part of him wanted to take the three or four large steps between them, hold her in his arms and kiss her like their was no tomorrow. But then the smaller, but louder and more rational part of him spoke up and sent those feelings packing.

Tony took a deep breath, "What-what are you doing here?"

"I live here now, and I um I heard you did too so I figured you know…"Ziva trailed off, sighing and rubbed a hand over her face. "We both know that we live and work in the same town now, so why don't we just skip the small talk?"

"Alright." He agreed. "How've you been? Tali said you two were in Israel for a few years."

"Thirteen years." Ziva specified.

"So you left a year after I did then?"

"I left NCIS two weeks after you did; I left America eleven months later." She explained her voice empty of all emotion.

"Why wait so long?" He asked curiously.

"You have absolutely no clue do you?" Ziva asked incredulously.

"What do you mean? What are you talking about Zee?"

"Tali, I'm talking about Tali. She's…" She paused taking a deep breath. "she's yours."

_Smack!_ Two words and Tony felt like he'd been slapped in the face.

"Tali's…" As he tried to grasp the mere idea that he had a daughter anger began to well up inside him. "How long were you planning on letting me go without knowing? I mean it's already been fourteen years, what would you have done if you hadn't just happened to move to the same town as me? Were you going to let me go my whole life without knowing I had a daughter?"

"Don't even go there Tony Dinozzo!" Ziva retorted her anger flaring as well. "As soon as I found out I tried to call you, I tried to let you know but your number wasn't working. You left Tony, not me so you cannot try to blame this on me!"

"I lost my phone when I moved, but there's this thing called having connections to a federal agency, you could have used them." He said jerking his head as he spoke.

"What connections? There was no one left! You left, Abby and McGee were…" She trailed off tears springing up in her eyes. "…Gibbs just disappeared into thin air, Ducky quit. The only one left was Jenny and there was no way I was going to ask her to find you and then be interrogated as to why I needed her to in the first place. Sure she was a great director and at times a good friend but I couldn't ask her to do that after everything that had just happened. You left me with no options Tony, I was in between a boulder and a hard place."

"Rock and a hard place." He corrected.

"It felt like a boulder to me!" she yelled.

Tony sighed rubbing a hand over his face, "I had no choice but to leave, I…"

"No, you had a choice Tony. You left, you could have stayed but…"

"Don't you tell me that I had a choice! You don't understand what I was going through." Tony interrupted.

"Really? Why don't you enlighten me then?" She spat.

"Do you know what would've happened if I had stayed? Vance would've put me in charge again." Ziva opened her mouth to interrupt him but he kept talking. "Yes Zee that would have been a problem. One, Abby and McGee would have been replaced with meaningless probies and nothing would have been the same. And two when Gibbs left the first time I almost fell apart. Suddenly I was in charge of you, McGee, and Abby, I was responsible for three peoples lives and though I didn't have to worry about Abby as much, every time we went into the field, went to catch a perp I was scared. If anything happened to either of you it would have been my fault and that simple concept shook me to the core. When Gibbs was in charge we had some close calls, so what was going to happen if _I_ was in charge? I couldn't go through that again especially now that I was in love with you. Losing you would have been…well there are really no words to describe how I would've felt."

"But you did lose me." She whispered. "You left, when I needed you the most you left."

"I asked you to come with me! I begged you to, but you refused to leave, to leave the city that sadly but truthfully, neither of us had connections to anymore." Tony countered.

"I could not leave, not so soon after what had happened. I was scared." A single tear rolled down her face, and he wished he could reach out and wipe it away.

"But we caught him Ziva, a little too late I'll admit but, we caught him. We were safe and I wanted to leave like that, with no worry." He explained staring into her eyes.

Ziva was silent for a while as she returned his gaze. "It didn't matter that we caught him, we just did not see eye to eye Tony, so maybe it was a good thing you left. We didn't have a chance to start something that was clearly not going to work out."

"You don't know that." Tony whispered to himself.

They were both quiet for a long time. Both wanting the other to either continue the conversation, or just end it. Tony looked around his room, his eyes subconsciously traveling to the desk where his own daughter had sat only a few hours before.

"What do we do now?" he asked looking back down at Ziva.

"Tali doesn't know anything about you, this won't be easy." She answered reading his mind. "We can tell her together or I can do it by myself."

"I'd prefer together." Tony replied. "When do you want to tell her?"

"Tomorrow after school? The longer we wait the greater the chance is that you will slip up in class."

"Are you saying I can't keep a secret?" He asked slipping back into the playful banter that used to be secondhand nature for both of them.

Ziva gave Tony a sad smile and a small kiss on the cheek, "I will see you tomorrow afternoon Tony."

"Bye Zee." He whispered.

Tony watched as she left the room. Once she was gone he sunk onto the floor leaning against the wall, head in his hands.

"Guess you were right about Rule twelve boss." He muttered, not really believing what he said. Even though breaking that rule hadn't turn out like he had imagined, those few blissful weeks all those years ago were amazing and he wouldn't have traded them for the world.

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><p><strong>AN: Hmmmm…..I sense a flashback coming on, how about you?**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey guys! So sorry it's taken me a little longer to upload this next chapter, I've had an unbelievable amount of projects due at school and with that can add up to an unbelievable little amount of free time. But thankfully there is this beautiful thing called Black Friday which I do not attend and I got to stay home and work on this next chapter. Now once again I realized I have failed, I had been planning to center this flashback chapter around Designated Target from season five but then I realized that Jenny was the director not Vance, so once again I went back and changed my error and hopefully none of you are confused. I really need to plan these things out further :) Anywho, hope all this isn't too confusing and you enjoy this next chapter!**

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><p>Chapter Four<p>

"_Do you ever think about soul mates?" Ziva asked leaning against the vending machine._

_Tony stared straight ahead, giving her an off the cuff answer as he tried to piece together why she had asked him such a question; a question that he had been thinking about a lot lately himself._

"_You'll never get it." She replied dejectedly, pushing off the machine._

_Tony kicked himself as she walked away, knowing he shouldn't have covered up his real feelings with a joke. The rest of the day went by in a blur, they solved the case and everyone went home. But Tony didn't go home, as he made his way down to the parking garage his mind was made up, before the night was over he was going to fix the mess he had made. As he pulled out of the building his mind wandered to all the times in the past few months when he could and should have made the first move. His relationship with Jeanne and been a huge mistake, it was evident the whole time they were dating, he just hadn't been able to see it clearly. Tony hadn't realized that the small flutter he got in his stomach whenever Ziva's hand brushed across his own actually meant something. He had pushed it to the back of his mind and continued dating someone who he realized he wasn't truly in love with. And even when they ended things; when Tony had gotten over the relationship; when that look Ziva gave him, the look that held so much care and maybe even love in it, when it became more frequent he still took no action. _

But tonight, everything is going to change. _He__ thought __as __he__ pulled__ into__ her__ apartment__ complex __exiting__ his __car __and__ barely__ remembering__ to __lock __it __before__ almost __sprinting__ into__ her__ building. __Tony__ wanted__ to__ tell __her__ as __soon __as __he __could __before __he__ lost __his__ nerve. __He __passed__ the__ elevator__ and__ opened__ the__ door__ to__ the __stairwell, __taking __the__ stairs __two __at a __time __until __he__ reached__ the__ third__ floor.__Tony __walked __down __the __long__ hallway __until __he __stood__ in __front __of __the __door __of __the __third__ to__ last __apartment._

_He knocked on the door twice and took a deep breath as he waited for her to answer. As he heard the lock click and saw the door swing open his heart began to race and he tried to put a convincing smile on his face._

"_Tony." Ziva greeted warily. "What are you doing here?"_

"_Hey, I just…I wanted to talk to you." He answered._

"_About what?" She asked, but opened her door wider so he could enter her apartment._

"_About what I said today." Tony answered causing Ziva to pause after closing her door._

"_What do you mean?" She questioned slowly turning so she was facing him._

"_When you asked me about soul mates today, I didn't answer truthfully." He explained._

"_Tony, when I asked you that I was just caught up in the case. It didn't mean anything." Ziva said not meeting his eyes as she took a right into her kitchen._

_Tony followed her and grabbed her hands as she tried to start a pot of coffee. "Zee, look at me." She tilted her head up and looked into his eyes. "I know that you were being serious when you asked if I ever thought about soul mates. I should have been serious with my answer but I wasn't and I'm sorry."_

"_Tony…"_

"_Wait, I'm not finished. What I should have said was yes I do think about soul mates. I think about my soul mate everyday and wish that I could tell her how much she means to me. But I'm too chicken to do that because I'm afraid that when I tell her she won't feel the same way about me and I will end up looking like an idiot." He paused placing a hand on the side of her face. "That's you Zee. **You **are my soul mate." _

_Before she could respond Tony had closed the space between them and kissed her. Ziva stiffened at first, but after some coaxing from Tony's lips she kissed back and melted into him, resting her arms around his neck. They eventually broke apart, but only for lack of oxygen._

"_I love you Zee." Tony whispered._

_Ziva looked up into his eyes. "Do you really mean that?"_

"_Yeah, I do." He stroked the side of her face with his thumb._

"_I love you too Tony." She said grinning widely at him._

_Tony returned the smile before kissing her again, this time more passionately. Ziva kissed back, but only briefly as she led him out of the kitchen and down the hall to her bedroom. They fell on the bed entangled in each others arms as articles of clothing were ripped off and thrown to the floor. Tony peppered her with kisses from the nape of her neck until their lips met again. Ziva broke off smiling and began to say something but as her lips moved all Tony could here was an incessant beeping sound._

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><p>Tony's eyes shot open and he looked around confused trying to figure out what had woke him up. Then sighing leaned over to the nightstand by his bed to shut off his alarm. Laying back down his closed his eyes, willing the dream to come back, wishing that he had really been there instead of where he was now. Because now in this time Ziva didn't love him anymore, he had left her at time when she needed him most and he didn't think he would ever be able to fix things. But back there in that dream the two of them were madly in love without a care in the world.<p>

"Keep dreaming DiNozzo because she'll never love you like that again." He muttered to himself.

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><p><strong>AN: A little short I know but flashbacks are going to be a little bit more like filler chapters in the beginning. Anyway hope you liked this and reviews are welcome! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Hey all! So I had trouble responding to the reviews submitted last chapter so I will be responding to those in this author's note. That's all and if you submitted a review I will respond to that below, and if not enjoy this next chapter!**

**_Jennifer__Catlin__DiNozzo:_Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it and I hope you like this chapter as well. :)**

**_drumms:_Thanks, and hope I updated soon enough for you :) Maybe I will…..guess you'll have to keep reading to find out ;)**

**_NCIS__Connection:_Hope this update was posted soon enough and now you won't have to wait :D**

**_ziva-abby11:_Once again thanks for those great words, they mean a lot to me. :)**

**_hellokittii16:_I'm glad you did! And, wow! That is awesome and I can't thank you enough! :)**

**_MegpieLovesTiva:_Yeah :( , but I'm glad you enjoyed it :)**

**_EowynGoldberry:_Thanks! Me too ;)**

**_Tigerlily02:_Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!**

**Alright that's done, so enjoy this next chapter!**

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><p>Chapter Five<p>

Tali bent down to the bottom of her locker to grab her history book and folder putting her science textbook and folder in their place. She pulled her hands out of her locker just in time as it suddenly slammed shut.

"Lucky." Sneered a voice beside her.

Tali sighed recognizing the voice of Nathan Daniels, the most annoying, idiotic, jerk in the whole school. She tried to move past him but he blocked her way, shoving her books out of her hands. She didn't respond to his taunting and bent down to pick up her books without a word, but he kicked them out of her reach just before she grabbed them.

Tali stood back up, "What is your problem?" she spat, no longer able to hold in her anger.

"Me?" he replied, taking a step towards her, pushing her up against the lockers. Nathan rested his arms against the lockers on either side of her head. "I don't recall ever having a problem."

"Just leave me alone." She pleaded turning her head away from him so he couldn't see the tears in her eyes threatening to escape.

"Now why would I…" he was cut off midsentence and he was no longer right up against her.

"Why can't you just act like a normal, nice, human being for once?" asked a voice that Tali didn't recognize.

She cautiously turned her head to look in front of her and found the voice belonged to a girl that looked to be her age. She had light brown hair, blue eyes, and fair skin and she was currently holding him by the collar of his shirt.

"What do you care?" She's just a no-good-Israeli-terrorist." He spat; a tear escaped and fell silently down Tali's cheek.

"Oh really?" She hissed back. "Because you know what you are Nathan? You're a…"

She went on to describe him with a string of words that made Tali blush. When she had finished she let go of his shirt and shoved him away.

"Now I suggest you leave her alone. Got it?" she said with a triumphant smile on her face because of the look she had caused to appear on his face.

He gave Tali and the girl a dirty look, muttered a 'whatever' and continued on down the hallway. Tali stayed silent for a moment, and then bent down to pick up her books still shocked for what this girl had just done for her. The girl bent down as well, picked up Tali's history book and handed it to her as they stood back up.

"Um…thank you…for what you did." Tali said, wiping her tear-stained cheeks quickly before giving the girl a small smile.

"Don't mention it. Nathan's a jerk and he's been asking for something like that to happen for a while." She replied returning Tali's smile. "I'm Izzy by the way."

"Nice to meet you, I'm…"

"Tali yeah I know." She finished with a laugh as they began to walk down the hall. "Sorry I haven't been able to say hi before now. I didn't know you were here until third period…today. I'm always the last to know everything that happens in this school."

Tali laughed. "That's alright, you're the first person to actually introduce themselves."

"That stinks." She frowned as they began to walk down the hall. "Oh and I am also sorry about my choice of words back there, I saw your face get red as an apple after I said them." Izzy winked. "I usually try to keep my swearing to a minimum, but when it comes to Daniels I just…"

Tali grinned as Izzy shook her head and huffed. "I get it, don't worry."

She smiled, "Good. Well what class do you have next?"

"History."

"Dang, I've got Computer Applications." Izzy frowned as they stopped outside the computer room. "Do you have your schedule with you?"

"Yeah, why?" she asked pulling it out of her pocket.

Izzy grabbed it and pulled a pencil out of her back pocket and started writing on the paper, then handed it back to Tali. "I marked all the classes we have together, find me or I'll find you and we can sit together." She explained.

"Oh, okay. That sounds great." Tali replied hesitantly.

"Not everyone in this school is a jerk, I promise." Izzy said with a smile before stepping into the computer room.

Tali smiled to herself and sped down the hall to history, taking her seat just as the bell rang. Mr. D took roll and when he came to her name he paused for a moment, giving her this look and his eyes were filled with an emotion she couldn't place. Tali just brushed it off, taking out her pencil and grabbing a piece of paper so she could take notes.

The rest of the day seemed to go by faster than normal, this was mostly due to the fact that what Izzy had done for her had gotten around the school and people were leaving her alone. Tali also smiled and laughed so much more than she had since she had gotten to Virginia and again this was mostly because of Izzy. They had all but two classes together and they sat beside each other talking the whole class period, at least Izzy did. Tali mostly just laughed at all the comments she made under her breath about some of the more mean teachers.

Now Tali was on her way home. She pulled her iPod out of her backpack as she walked out of the front of the building and down the steps. Tali didn't ride the bus, but instead took a fifteen minute walk back to her house since they lived so close to the school. She stuck her ear buds in and began scrolling through songs trying to find something she was in the mood for. She found a song and her thumb was poised above the screen, but she heard someone call out her name. Tali turned around, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Tali, wait up!" She smiled, it was Izzy and she was hurrying to catch up.

"Slow down Iz, where's the explosion?" Tali joked.

"Explosion? What?" her eyebrows furrowed together, and then realization dawned on her face. "Oh! You mean where's the fire?"

"That's the saying? But wouldn't you be running faster if there was an explosion?" she questioned.

"Well I guess you have a point." Izzy grinned wryly at her, adjusting the textbooks in her arms. "I didn't know you walked home."

Tali nodded, putting her iPod away as they continued walking down the neighborhood sidewalk. "Yeah, I live on Bluestone Drive; it's not that far from school."

"You live on Bluestone?" Tali nodded. "So, do I!"

"Really? That's awesome!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know! You can come over and we can hang out sometime."

"That sounds like fun." Tali smiled. "So how did your last class go?"

"Ugh! I absolutely hate Mrs. Vaughn…"

They continued walking, talking about teachers, school, pretty much anything that they could think of until they got to Tali's house.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then." Tali said playing with her hands.

"Oh come here." Izzy engulfed her in a hug. "I promise I'm not going anywhere Tal. I know school sucks right now, but I promise I'll be there for you."

"Thanks, Iz." She squeezed Izzy, before letting go.

"See you tomorrow Tali." She started to walk towards her house, but had only taken a couple of steps before turning back around. "Do you have a cell phone?"

"Yeah, sure." Tali took hers out of her pocket, Izzy did the same. "Want to put each others numbers in then?"

"That was exactly what I was thinking." She smiled and they exchanged phones, putting in each others numbers. "I'll text you later; we can work on that science homework together."

"Sounds great." Tali grinned handing Izzy back her phone as she handed hers back. "Hey, do you want to walk to school together tomorrow?"

"Yeah! I didn't even think about that." She replied starting to walk backwards toward her house that was a couple of houses down the street. "I'll meet you here tomorrow at 7:00?"

"Yeah, that's perfect. Bye Izzy!" Tali called as she walked up to her porch.

"Adios, amiga!"

Tali smiled, pulling the lanyard from around her neck that had her house key on it, but as she grabbed the knob, she found that the door was surprisingly unlocked. She put the lanyard back around her neck and walked in the door.

"Mom, I'm home!" she called walking back to her room kicking off her shoes then setting her book bag in her closet.

"Talia Katelyn David! Why on earth are you so late?"

Tali did a one-eighty, confused at why her mom was yelling at her. "_Ima_, what are you talking about?"

"It's almost three-thirty!" She yelled exasperatedly.

"Really? I'm sorry _Ima_, I guess I lost track of time." Tali said, walking past her mom into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge. "I walked home with this girl I met at school today."

Her mom calmed down a bit at this, "Really, who?"

"Her name's Izzy. She's the funniest girl ever, plus she knows how to deal with that Nathan kid I was telling you about yesterday. She's…" Tali stopped talking as her history teacher walked into the room, which was shocking to say the least. "Um…"

"Oh yes, we have some company Tal." Her mom said glancing at her teacher. "There's something that I-I mean we, need to talk to you about."

"Okay…" She replied hesitantly.

"Why don't we sit down?" Her mom suggested, gesturing to the kitchen table.

They all took a seat, and an awkward silence filled the room.

"So…" her mom started.

"I'm you're Dad." Her teacher blurted out.

"Tony!" her mom slapped him on the arm.

"What? Why should we draw it out?" he replied.

Tali just sat there stunned, her eyes large and her mouth hanging open a little bit as her stomach churned.

"_Ahava_, are you alright?" Her mom put her hands on top of Tali's.

Tali jerked away from her, anger rising within her. "No, I'm not alright!" She shouted.

"Tali, please don't do this." Her mom warned.

"Please don't do this? Are you kidding? I've got every right to do this!" she yelled, standing up. "You have been lying to me my whole life about who my father is! You told me that you didn't know him, that it was just some meaningless night, and that I shouldn't dwell on it!"

Tali saw Mr. D's face sadden when she said 'meaningless night', and part of her regretted her words.

"Tali please, would you sit down so we can sort this all out?" her mother pleaded.

"No, there's nothing more to sort out! We've established the fact that you have been lying to me my whole life, so I don't think there is anything else we need to talk about." Tears began to fill her eyes and she rushed out of the kitchen, running into her room slamming the door behind her and then locked it.

She fell onto the bed tears streaming down her face, her body wracked with sobs. Tali could faintly hear them talking in the hallway, but ignored it. She couldn't believe that her whole life was basically a lie, that her mom had known who her Dad was the whole time, and by the sound of it wouldn't have told her who he was unless they had coincidently moved into the same town as him.

Later that night, Tali laid in bed still dressed in her clothes from school and stared up at the ceiling. Her mom had made a few attempts to talk to her, but each time Tali just gave her the silent treatment. She had nothing more to say to her mom at this point. As the beams of moonlight streamed through her window, Tali began to grow angry. A plan began to develop in her head and she stood up walking to her closet, taking her book bag off the shelf. She emptied it of all its contents and began shoving clothes from her closet inside. Tali walked around her room filling the bag with other necessities, she didn't no where she was running away to yet, but she knew she couldn't stay here.

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><p><strong>AN: Ahhhhh major cliffy! Hope you liked this chapter from Tali's point of view! Reviews are appreciated! **


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Tali quietly crept out of her room, her backpack slung over her shoulder and her black converse in hand. She padded down the hallway and set her shoes and bag down by the door. Then turned around, walked through the kitchen, then to the left when she got to the garage door, and entered the basement. Before she could leave she needed money, which meant that she was going to have to use her college savings. Ever since Tali had started getting an allowance her mom had ingrained in her head the importance of saving money, and supporting yourself, blah, blah, blah. Anyways, this meant that she had managed to save up close to 800 dollars that was sitting in a shoe box in a safe in the basement.

Tali hopped off the last step, walked over to the old work bench the safe was sitting on and dialed in the combination. The locked clicked open and she pulled the door open, shuffling the contents of the safe around until she found the shoe box. Tali took the cash out of the box, folded it in half, and wrapped a rubber band around it, placing it in her pocket until she put it in her bag upstairs. She put the box back in the safe and was about to close it back up when something caught her eye.

Shoved to the side of the safe was a small booklet that appeared to be a photo album. Curious Tali took it out. It was a simple, small, black photo album, not too interesting from the outside anyways. She opened it up and studied the first picture. It was of a group of people in what looked like an office building. On the very left were her mom and dad-no she couldn't deal with that yet, she couldn't picture him as her dad, not yet. Tali shook her head continuing to study the picture. Her mom was grinning widely, this was the happiest she had ever seen her and Mr. D's arm was resting on her mom's shoulders his smile was huge as well. Tali continued down the line. Beside her parents was another couple, and a rather odd couple at that. The man was thin and lanky, his arm was around the waist of a very odd looking woman. She had jet black hair pulled up into to pigtails, tattoos here and there, a black shirt and plaid mini-skirt lay beneath a white lab coat and she had on the tallest boots Tali had ever seen. Next was an older man, his smile wasn't as broad as the others but it was still there. He too wore a lab coat and the ID hanging from his pocket read Dr. Mallard, her eyes traveled back to the other woman but her ID was flipped backwards. Next to Dr. Mallard was a middle-aged gray-haired man, his smile was barely there and it appeared that he would rather not be wasting his time with a group picture. Then last in the group was a red-haired woman, she had on a small smile and by the looks of her suit and the way she held herself in the picture she was in charge.

Tali carefully slid the pictured out of the album, and flipped it over. Her mom had written on the back as usual. _Me, __Tony, __McGee, __Abby, __Ducky, __Gibbs__ and__ Director__ Sheppard__ (NCIS)._

"NCIS?" Tali said aloud. "What's that?"

She put the picture in her pocket, then put the album back inside the safe. After closing the door tight, Tali headed back upstairs to her room and logged onto her laptop. She pulled up the internet and typed NCIS into the search box on her Google homepage. Several websites popped up and she clicked on one that looked the most reliable. On the homepage under the four letters was Naval Criminal Investigative Services, explaining the name. After reading more she found out that it was a federal agency in Washington D.C. and that the woman in the picture Tali had found in the safe was still the director there. Tali glanced back at the photo on her desk then back to the screen, realization slapping her in the face. Her mom and Mr. D had been federal agents, just one more thing her mom had decided to keep from her. Anger coursed through her once more and Tali closed her laptop, left her room and came to stand in front of the door. She slipped her shoes on and grabbed a light jacket off the coat rack by the door. Tali slung her book bag over her shoulders and walked out the door, shutting it carefully and quietly. Once outside in the pitch black night, she walked down the sidewalk with purpose towards the bus stop a couple blocks away.

* * *

><p>Four hours later Tali had arrived at her destination, after taking a bus to the airport she got on a Greyhound bus that took her to Washington D.C. and she was now currently standing inside an elevator inside NCIS. Though when she had taken a taxi to NCIS and requested to see the director she had stirred up some things and was now being accompanied to the director's office by a security guard. Tali glanced around the elevator. She stood towards the back with the middle-aged security guard, while there was an older gray- haired man in front of them and a woman about the same age as the guard beside him. They stopped on the third floor and the woman got off. The man took a swig of his coffee and he seemed familiar, Tali tried to get a better look at him. She attempted slyness as she studied him, after bending down to 'tie her shoe' she stood up a little bit closer to him than she had previously been standing. As she studied his face the picture she had found in the safe, which was sitting in the back pocket of her jeans, flashed through her mind and she recognized him.<p>

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. The man, who at this point she had figured to be Gibbs, dashed out of the elevator only pausing momentarily to look at the same area where Tali realized the pictured had been taken. He took the steps beside this area two at a time until he had reached the top platform and entered an office. Tali and her guard took the same route albeit a bit slower up to the director's office. Once inside the guard uttered a few words to the secretary and motioned for Tali to take a seat in one of the chairs pushed up against the wall. She tapped her foot in anticipation, trying to figure out exactly what she was going to say when she did get to see the director.

* * *

><p><em>A Few Seconds Earlier<em>

Gibbs entered the familiar office and passed the secretary ignoring her protests that he couldn't see the director, he had heard it hundreds of times before so he continued into the director's office. It took Jenny a moment to realize who had entered her office but when she had her face was a mix of shock and confusion.

"Gibbs? What are you-where have you been?" She asked.

"That doesn't matter, I need to talk to you about McGee and Abby I think that…"

"Doesn't matter?" she asked incredulously. "Jethro, you've been gone for over a decade and you think it doesn't matter?"

"Not compared to what I've found out." Jenny stared back at him, a look he had gotten many times before. "Fine Jen, if it's that important I've been pretty much all over the country trying to figure out where Abby and McGee are."

"What are you talking about? Jethro, Abby and McGee are dead. There was a bomb, there were bodies." Tears sprung up in her eyes.

"Bodies that were unrecognizable, bodies that we all assumed were them." He countered. "Jen, I've got proof, please would you just…"

He was interrupted as her secretary's voice came over the phone's intercom. "Director, there is a Miss David here to see you."

Gibbs' head snapped up as did Jenny's. _Could i__t__ really __be __her?_ Gibbs thought.

"Send her in." she replied shooting Gibbs a look of surprise and confusion.

They both stared at the door waiting for it to open. Then it did and the person that came through the door was not who Gibbs had expected at all. As he studied the teenage girl, he remembered her from the elevator and as he looked at her he began to see familiar traits in her from two agents he had known well 14 years ago. Her chocolate brown eyes, the curly, sandy brown hair, the nervous look in her eyes, it was all familiar. Gibbs glanced back at Jenny but she was focused on the girl.

"Hello Miss David, what can I…"

"My name's Tali." She interrupted, fidgeting nervously with her hands. "And I need-I mean I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me."

Gibbs caught Jenny's eye and the two shared a look of confusion. "I can try Tali. What questions do you need me to answer?" she replied hesitantly.

Tali pulled something out of her back pocket, walked it up to the desk and laid it in front of the director. Gibbs leaned forward, looked at the photo she had placed on the desk, and then turned to face Tali.

"Where did you get that?" He could tell she was confused and scared, so he tried to ask as gently as he could.

"It's my mom's. I hadn't seen it until last night, after my mom finally decided to tell me who my father is." She paused leaning over the desk, pointing to Ziva and Tony. "Those are my parents, and I want to know everything about them."

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><p><strong>AN: Well, how'd ya like it? Send me a review!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

The beeping of Ziva's alarm filled her room, signaling that it was time for her to get up, but she was already awake. She normally got up at six, but she had been up since five, questioning everything she had ever done in raising Tali. Deep down Ziva knew that when Tali had first started asking about her father, she should have told her the truth, but she had been selfish. She had been worried that if she told her the truth Tali would try to find Tony, and Ziva didn't want to go through the ordeal of having to explain everything to him if she did find him.

_Looks __like__ I __had__ to__ anyways._ She thought.

Ziva finally reached over to turn off her alarm, knowing Tali would come storming in and do it herself in a few minutes. She sat up and stretched her arms above her head; a small yawn escaped her mouth. She slipped out of bed, grabbed her robe off the back of the door, and wrapped it around her as she made her way to the kitchen. As she started a pot of coffee she heard Tali's iHome begin blasting music to wake her up. Ziva grabbed a package of Pop-tarts, opened them and stuck them in the toaster, knowing from experience Tali wasn't as grumpy in the morning once she had eaten something. She waited for the Pop-tarts to pop up, the music in Tali's room was still blaring when they were done and Ziva furrowed her brow. She set the Pop-tarts on a plate, left them on the counter, and exited the kitchen walking down the hall to her daughter's room.

"Tali?" she knocked on the door. "Tali, its time to get up, please turn off you're alarm."

Ziva waited, listening for either a response or for her to get up out of bed, but she heard neither.

"Tali turn it off or I'm coming in." She warned. After no response she entered the room, went over to Tali's dresser and shut the alarm off. "Tali, please quit ignoring me and…"

Ziva stopped mid-sentence, Tali's bed was empty, she was alone in the room. She looked around, Tali's textbooks and folders were in a pile on the floor, the drawers of her dresser were left open haphazardly, and her closet was left open, hangers empty. Ziva began to panic. She ran out of Tali's room into the bathroom next door, but she wasn't there either. She checked the living room, kitchen and even ran down to the basement, but it was all in vain. The second Ziva had found her bed empty she knew Tali was gone.

Ziva sprinted back to her room, grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand and dialed Tali's number. There was only one ring before it went to voicemail, her call had been rejected. She tried again, but got the same result. Ziva began to breathe heavily, tears filling her eyes. Tali was gone, there was no note, her called was rejected and Ziva was scared beyond words. Her hands shook as she dialed another number into her phone, praying that the person on the other end of the line would pick up.

"_Hello?"_

"Tony." Ziva choked out. "Tony I-I need you t-to come over."

"_Zee, what' wrong? You're scaring me." He asked his voice full of concern._

"It's Tali she-she's gone." She replied, tears sliding down her cheeks. "I just g-got up and sh-she's not here."

"_I'm on my way." Tony answered; she could faintly here a car door opening and shutting in the background. "I'll be there in two minutes."_

"Thank you Tony." Ziva whispered, hanging up.

* * *

><p>Tony's car came to a screeching halt in front of Ziva's house. As promised it had only taken him two minutes to get across town from his apartment. Tony slammed his car door shut, ran up the steps to the porch and entered the house not bothering to knock. He walked into the living room and found Ziva on the couch; her knees pulled to her chest, a blank expression on her face.<p>

"Ziva?" she didn't move; Tony took a seat beside her on the couch. "Zee, c'mon don't shut me out. We're going to find her, but to do that I need you to talk to me or at least acknowledge my presence."

She finally looked up at him; unshed tears glistened in her chocolate brown eyes, "It's all my fault."

Four words and her resolve was broken; tears slid down her face like rain. Tony took her in his arms and did his best to comfort her.

"It's not your fault Zee." he whispered.

"Yes it is. If I had told her the truth from the very beginning none of this would have happened. She'd still be here, you wouldn't be mad at me…"

"Hold on, you think I'm mad at you?" he asked pulling away so he could see her face.

"You were mad the other night when I told you about Tali." She stated, wiping her tear-stained cheeks.

"I admit I was mad then, but that was only because I wish I would've known about Tali sooner, but I'm not mad anymore. I promise." He squeezed her hand and gave her a small smile.

"I guess that's one less problem." Ziva muttered looking up into his face; she wasn't able to smile back at him. "But we still have to figure out where Tali went."

Tony looked around, "Did she leave a note?"

"No," she shook her head. "How are we going to find her?"

He was silent for a moment, then a smile crept onto his face, "That's simple, we do what we've always done best."

Tony stood up, left the room and made his way down the hall to Tali's room, Ziva close behind him. "Tony what do you mean? What are you doing?"

He took a seat at Tali's desk, opening her laptop. "Do you know her password?" he asked ignoring her question.

She pointed to a post-it on the desk, "_Miqqud_, it's Hebrew for code. I made her right it down because she forgets things all the time. Now would you please tell me what you are doing?"

"I'm going to look up her history to see if she searched anything that might tell us where she's gone." He explained pulling up the internet browser.

"Oh. I would never have thought of that."

"You would've eventually Zee, once an agent always an agent." He winked at her before turning his attention back to the computer screen. "Okay let's see here, it looks like the last website she visited was...the NCIS Home Page…"

"Why would she… I've never told Tali anything about NCIS. This doesn't…" Ziva stopped midsentence and Tony saw her eyes light up.

"Ziva?"

"Wait here I'll be right back." Tony turned, opening his mouth to protest but she was already gone.

He sighed stuffing his hands in his pockets. Tony looked around the room, swiveling in the chair. He studied Tali's room, trying to learn as much about her as he could. To the right of her desk was an average size book case, it was filled to the teeth with books of all shapes and sizes. Some in great condition, others worn by being read so many times that the binding was falling apart.

"Figures." Tony muttered with a smile, finding it ironic that his daughter would be a book worm when he was a movie buff.

"I know where she went." Ziva appeared in the doorway and he swiveled towards her.

"How?" Tony stood up and walked over to her.

She held up a small black book, "I keep this in the safe downstairs, where Tali keeps her college savings. Their was a picture of the group of us at NCIS in the front of this and its gone now, along with her savings."

"So she took the picture and her money and went to NCIS?" he asked, making sure he understood her correctly.

"I think so." Ziva answered.

"Alright then let's go." He left Tali's room, walked down the hall and opened the front door, but stopped when he saw Ziva was still in the doorway to Tali's room. "You coming Zee?"

Their gaze met and she gave him a look that he couldn't really decipher, it was a mix of surprise and something else that he couldn't understand. But the moment had soon vanished and Ziva smiled at him. "Yes, let us get this show on the street."

Tony grinned, "Road, not street."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well hoped you liked it, send me a review!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Gibbs looked across the conference table at Tali; she was fidgeting with her hands and was desperately trying to avoid eye contact with him. After confessing that she had runaway Jenny had left the room to call Ziva, leaving her alone with him.

"Why'd you run away?" he asked breaking the silence.

She lifted her head up slowly and Gibbs caught her gaze, he raised his eyebrows prompting her to respond. After a few moments she shrugged and broke their eye contact, but didn't look away from him completely; Gibbs knew he had succeeded.

"I was mad I my mom." Tali replied quietly. He opened his mouth to ask why but she continued all her words tumbling out at once. "A few years ago when I asked about my dad she said that she only spent one night with him and she didn't know who he was. She said he didn't mean anything to her and I accepted that because I love my mom and she is all I have ever needed. But then last night I found out that somehow we had moved back from Israel to a town where my dad just happened to live in and he works at the school I'm going to. Last night when they told me, I freaked out and I admit I probably shouldn't have yelled at her like I did, but she could have at least tried to understand how I was feeling."

After she had finished her face had become hot and red with anger that Gibbs recognized from both of her parents. He thought about saying something, but decided to let her cool off.

Tali looked up at him a few seconds later her face back to a normal color, a look of guilt in her eyes. "I'm sorry I went off like that."

"Don't worry about it." He replied, giving her a small smile. "I've seen both your parents get just as angry before on more than one occasion."

"Really?" She asked curiously, sitting up a bit straighter in her chair.

"Oh yeah." Gibbs grinned at the way her eyes had lit up; she really did just want to learn about who her parents were. He turned his attention to the door as Jenny walked back in.

"Your Mom and Tony are on their way here now and should get into D.C. around noon." she said looking at Tali, then turned and looked at Gibbs. "I told them that she would stay with you until they got here."

"Alright." He stood up, as did Tali picking up her book bag.

"Tali about those questions you had…"

Tali opened her mouth to answer but Gibbs did instead, "I've got it covered Jen."

She smiled, "Okay, make sure to call when Tony and Ziva get there."

He nodded, then he and Tali left, his hand resting protectively on her shoulder.

* * *

><p>"This is it." Gibbs said as they stood just inside his door. "It's been a few years since anyone's been in here so it's probably a bit dusty. Though it was just as dusty when I did live here all the time."<p>

"Makes no difference to me." She smiled at him. "Thank you for letting me stay with you Gibbs."

"Don't worry about it." He led her into the living room and she sat on the couch, dropping her backpack on the floor beside her. He glanced at his watch. "Have you had breakfast?"

"Um…" she didn't have to finish as her stomach growled loudly.

"Pancakes sound good?" Gibbs asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah, thanks." Tali grinned.

He left the room and walked to the kitchen; but as he opened the cupboard where the pancake mix should have been he realized that there was no food in his house due to the fact that he had been gone the past fourteen years. Gibbs walked back out to the living room.

"Well I can't make…" he stopped midsentence, the corners of his lips turned up in a smile.

Tali had fallen asleep on the sofa, her head rested on her hand that was propped against the arm of the couch; Gibbs figured she had probably gotten either little or no sleep on the bus last night. He wasn't about to let her sleep on his uncomfortable couch so he picked her up and took her upstairs to Kelly's old room. He laid her on the bed and covered her up with the faded quilt, a feeling of melancholy filling him as he thought about how long it had been since he had been in this room and tucked in his own daughter. Gibbs pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind as he exited the room and closed the door softly behind him. He made his way down to the basement, closing his eyes as he inhaled the familiar scent of wood. He approached the boat he had left unfinished fourteen years ago, trying to remember what he had last done to it. Gibbs studied the frame of the boat and discovered he had not finished sanding it yet. He looked around the room for his sander, walking over to his work bench and moving a few things around. He finally found it under some newspapers, he leaned under the cabinets on the wall and was about to stand up when a scream from upstairs startled him and he hit his head on the cabinet.

"Damn." Gibbs rubbed the back of his head as the yells continued. He ran up to the second floor and burst into Kelly's old room to find Tali tossing and turning in her sleep.

"No! No! Don't, take her away. Bring her back! Please!" She cried out in her sleep; tears were running down her face in torrents.

"Tali, wake up it's only a dream." He placed his hands on her shoulders and her eyes shot open.

She sat up and looked at him, tears filled her eyes. "G-Gibbs?"

He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair while she cried into his chest. "Shh, everything's okay."

After a few minutes she pulled away, wiping the last of her tears away on her sleeve. "Thank you."

Gibbs nodded. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"It was just a dream or a memory actually." Tali explained. "When I was little my grandfather tried to train me like he had my mom. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I know he took me away from my mom very abruptly."

"You said he tried to train you like your mom, so you knew that she was Mossad?" he asked curiously.

"She didn't go into much detail, she just said that he wasn't a good man and his 'people' weren't either." She answered looking around the room. "How did I get here?"

"You fell asleep on the couch, but I figured you'd be more comfortable up here." He explained. "You sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm just a bit shaken; I haven't had that dream in a while." Tali replied sheepishly.

"Come with me, I think I know how to git rid of that feeling." Gibbs stood up and walked to the door, waiting for her to follow before leading her to the basement.

"You're building a boat? How are you going to get it out?" She asked incredulously staring at the frame that rested on sawhorses.

"That part's a secret." He grinned and picked up the sander then handed it to her, than grabbed another from his workbench and began sanding a board. "Go ahead, it helps."

Tali slowly lifted the tool to the boat frame and began moving her arms up and down. They were both silent the only sound in the room coming from their hands. "Why are you building this?"

"It keeps me busy." Gibbs answered knowing there would be more questions following this one by the look on her face.

"The room upstairs that I was in is it-I mean do you have kids?" she asked glancing at him.

"I did."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Tali whispered her hands paused their movements.

"Don't be, you didn't know." He thought about mentioning rule six, but thought she might not understand. "Technically I…"

He was interrupted as he heard his front door open and close. "Gibbs, Tali?" called a familiar voice.

Gibbs glanced over at Tali who had visibly tensed up since he had last looked at her. He took the sander from her and set both of them on the work bench, then placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I know your mom, she'll be more worried than upset." He whispered, trying to give her an encouraging smile.

"If you say so."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay so this my first full Gibbs POV chapter and I would really love some feedback on how I did. Sooooo shoot me a review!**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Tony followed Ziva inside Gibbs' house, glad to be able to stretch his legs after the long, four hour drive to D.C. He looked around the parts of the house he could see from his vantage point in the hallway and found that nothing had changed. Though he hadn't really expected it to seeing as Gibbs hadn't lived there in a while.

"Tali, Gibbs?" Ziva called after looking in the living room and kitchen for them.

Tony heard footsteps coming up from the basement and a few seconds later Tali and Gibbs walked into the hallway. Ziva instantly engulfed Tali in a hug and the two began talking quietly; Tali glanced at him every so often. He looked around to see where Gibbs had gone, but he got his answer as there was a swift, hard tap to the back of his head.

"Gibbs." Tony greeted with a grimace.

The older man came to stand beside him. "DiNozzo."

"You gonna tell me what I did to deserve that within the first two minutes of being here?" He asked rubbing the back of his head.

"Rule twelve DiNozzo." Gibbs stated simply.

"How do you even know we broke rule twelve? It simply could have been one night and…."

"If it was anything but rule twelve you would have gotten a lot worse than a slap." He replied, staring Tony down.

"Rule twelve, got it." He said, looking over to Ziva and Tali noticing that the conversation had turned into an argument.

"Why don't you get it?" Tali questioned her voice raised.

"Get what Tali? That you couldn't handle this situation in any other way then by running away from it?" Ziva retorted angrily. "I would love to understand that Tali, believe me, I would."

"Are you kidding me?" she yelled. "This isn't just a 'situation', it's my whole life! You have been lying to me for **my**** whole ****life** and you expect me to just take it in stride. You expect me to act like this is nothing new?"

Tali began to leave, but Ziva caught her arm. "Tali, don't act like this. Please, I'm just asking…"

"Ask whatever you want, but I won't answer." She spat, jerking her arm out of her mother's grasp then running upstairs out of sight.

Ziva turned around to face them, anger slowly disappeared from her face to be replaced by guilt and tears filled her eyes. "Gibbs, I'm sorry. I didn't want to make a scene, I just…"

Gibbs silenced her, taking her in his arms and Ziva let her tears fall. "It's okay Ziver, I understand."

Tony stood motionless, unsure of what to do, until Gibbs turned to look at him and jerked his head in the direction of the stairs. It took a moment for Tony to understand, but then he realized what Gibbs meant. He nodded at him and then walked up the steps, stopping once he entered the upstairs hall. Tony looked around and found that light and quiet voice, were floating out of a cracked door on his right. He quietly crept up to the door and listened to Tali's voice.

"Izzy, calm down I'm fine." Confused, Tony peaked through the door and Tali was sitting on the floor, a cell phone in her hand.

"_How__ was __I__ supposed__ to __know __that?__" _The phone was on speaker; he stepped back from the door and leaned against the wall to listen. _"__You __didn__'__t __meet__ me __in __front __of __your __house __this __morning__ and __then __you__ didn__'__t __show__ up __to__ school __either.__"_

"I know Iz, I'm sorry I should have texted you or something, but things-things have been a little crazy since yesterday afternoon." She sighed.

Tony wanted to hear more but realized that it wasn't right for him to eavesdrop, so he knocked on the door. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, hold on a sec." Tali called back. "I've got to go Iz, but I promise I'll text you later."

"_Alright, I've got to go to anyways before Mr. Rice gets suspicious of my trip to the bathroom." _

Tali laughed. "Bye Izzy."

"_Bye." _

"Okay." She called, and Tony slowly entered the room.

"Hey." He greeted.

"Hi Mr.-I mean Tony-I mean ugh! I don't know what I mean." She tried to greet back.

Tony tried to suppress a laugh as he sat down beside her, resting his hands on his knees. "How about outside of school I'm Tony?" he suggested.

"Alright." She agreed. "So…what did you want?"

"Tali, I know that this whole 'mess' has been confusing and made you angry, but I understand how you're feeling right now." He said, praying that she wouldn't blow this statement off.

She didn't, but looked confused. "Okay…"

"I just mean that both of us are in the same place right now." He began, turning his head to look at her. "We don't know each other, we really didn't know that either of us existed, or in your case knew that I even cared. The only thing we really have in common is your mom."

"You mean the fact that my mom lied to both of us." She muttered angrily looking away from him.

"Tali, if it is anyone's fault that you didn't know about my or about your mom's past it is mine." Tony whispered.

She whipped her head back around. "Your fault, how could it be your fault?"

"There was a situation, a horrible instance before you were alive where we lost two people that were very close to us." He explained, leaning his head back against the mattress. "I couldn't handle staying in the same town, working in the same place where we had lost them, anymore. I wanted to leave, but your mom couldn't. That place had become her first real home since she left Israel the first time and she couldn't just up and leave it." Tony paused and looked over at Tali. "I loved your mother Tali, but I couldn't stay there. I left because I was hurt, but if I would've been smart enough to see it I would have realized that your mom felt the exact same way I did. If I hadn't been an idiot I would've stayed with her, we would have found out about you together, we would have been a family. But I didn't, I left and in doing so I hurt her so much that she couldn't even tell you about me, her past, or anything." He drew in a shaky breath, this was the first time he had talked about this and it was hitting him hard. "What I'm trying to say, is that I'm sorry this happened. I wish you didn't have had to be put in this situation, but your mom did what she thought was best and the both of us need to accept that."

Tony felt pressure on his right shoulder; he looked down to find Tali had rested her head against him. "Okay." She whispered.

"Okay?" he repeated confused.

"I'll try to understand her." Tali explained looking up at him.

Without thinking Tony put his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. Once he had realized what he had done he tensed up, he had stepped into an unknown territory and he didn't know how she would react. After a second though he found he didn't have anything to worry about because she put an arm around his middle and hugged him. Tony let out a sigh of relief and rested his cheek on her head.

_Maybe __this __whole __Dad __thing__ is __going __to__ be __easier __than __I__ thought. _If only he had known then what would happen later that night.

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><p><strong>AN: Huh, wonder what that means? ;) Shoot me a review and I might have the next chapter up tomorrow :D**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Tony walked into Gibbs' kitchen and went over to the counter, taking the pot out of the coffee maker and filing it with water from the sink. He poured it back in the machine then rooted around the cupboards until he found some coffee. Tony leaned back against the counter after finishing his task, leaning his head against the cupboards and closing his eyes. Today had been stressful and tiring, but in the end things had turned out alright. After he talked with Tali she made up with her mom and the rest of the day was spent basically lazing around. Jenny had stopped in at one point all smiles, tiptoeing around the status of Tony and Ziva's relationship, or lack thereof. Gibbs did the same, until about ten minutes ago when Tali had gone to bed and he suggested that Tony should go start a pot of coffee; clearly a sign that he was ready to talk about 'everything'.

Tony opened his eyes as he heard someone walk into the room. "Ziva."

"Tony." She greeted in return, copying his stance against the counter. "You know what he's going to want to talk about."

"I know." He sighed, scrubbing a hand across his tired eyes.

"What do we tell him?" she asked looking up at him.

"The truth?" Tony answered, more of a question then a statement. "What else would we tell him?"

"I don't know." Ziva murmured dejectedly. "I just don't want to be treated like a child. We were adults, we were mature enough to make our own decisions and even though he was our boss I don't feel like he had the right to tell us who we could and couldn't date."

"Ziva…" Tony began staring at the person who was now standing right behind her.

"I'm not finished." She said forcefully. "So maybe things didn't work out between us and yes I got pregnant, but it's not like we were being extremely careful. We knew what could happen, but we didn't care and that's our problem not Gibbs'. Right?"

"Um…" He wasn't sure if he should answer; agreeing with her, which truthfully he did, would anger Gibbs who she still didn't know was right behind her. But if he didn't agree with Ziva she would be angry with him and that was not something he wanted to happen if he was going to try and gain back her trust, her love. Thankfully he didn't have to do either of these things as Gibbs spoke up.

"Why don't you just tell me how you really feel, Ziva?" He said sarcastically, a small smile appeared on his face as he made his way over to the kitchen table.

Her eyes grew wide and she sent Tony a look of disbelief, seeming to ask him why he had not alerted her of Gibbs' presence. "I tried." He whispered with a smile and a shrug.

"Um...sorry Gibbs I did not know you were there." She bit her lip taking a seat across from him.

"Firstly, never apologize it's a sign of weakness." Tony smiled as he poured them each a cup of coffee, it had only been a day and Gibbs was already referring to his rules. "And secondly if you had known I was there I wouldn't have heard what you two really thought."

Tony furrowed his brow as he set the coffee mugs down on the table. "You two? Boss I never…"

"I'm not an idiot DiNozzo, you both think alike when it comes to certain things and I know had I not been standing there you would have agreed with her." He interrupted taking a sip of his coffee. Tony sat down beside Ziva and wrapped his hands around his cup. "When did you two start dating?"

"A couple weeks before the 'Couple Killer' Case." Tony answered. "We were surprised you never found out, you always seemed to know about everything that went on back then."

"Well I guess you just did a good job of hiding it DiNozzo." He said dryly. "When did you break it off?"

"A few days after Abby and Tim were gone." Ziva replied as she tapped her fingers on the table, avoiding eye contact with Gibbs.

"Why?"

Tony sighed; he hadn't talked about this in a while. "I couldn't stay in D.C. any longer; it didn't feel right to me anymore. Ziva didn't want to leave so we ended things, that's all there is to it." He tried to keep his explanation as short and simple as possible knowing that neither Ziva nor himself wanted to draw this conversation out.

"Why wouldn't you go?" He asked turning his gaze on Ziva.

"I don't know I just…" She paused, still unwilling to meet Gibbs eyes. "This was the first real home I'd had in years and even though Abby and Tim were killed I couldn't just leave. At that point I still had Tony, I didn't need to leave if you were there."

He met her eyes and felt his heart break, Tony knew the pain he had felt when they ended things was unbearable, but until now he had never thought about what Ziva had gone through. First he left her, then she found out she was pregnant and then she was alone when she had Tali. No wonder she went back to Israel. Speaking of which-

"Why did you come back?" He blurted out. "You were in Israel for so thirteen years before you decided to come back, why?"

Ziva ignored his question for a few minutes; the only emotion her face showed was of deep contemplation. "After I had Tali I went to Israel, I found my father and for the first couple of years everything was fine, great even. It was like he had changed, that coming back and bringing him a granddaughter had softened him. But after a few years he changed and I realized I was wrong." She paused taking a deep breath. "When Tali was about three and we had both laid down for a nap and when I woke up Tali was no longer in her crib. One of my father's men, under his orders, had set up a sort of obstacle course or maze and at the end was her favorite stuffed animal. I only woke up when she started crying because every time she did something wrong the man would hit her. My father was trying to groom her, train her for Mossad; I had already been down that road and I wasn't going to let him do that to my daughter. So I left, but it didn't take long before he found me and once again tried to take Tali. We moved around Europe for several years before I decided it was finally time to come back."

"Why was he so bent on training her?" Gibbs asked, though he looked deep in thought.

"I never found out." She sighed. "Why does it matter to you?"

"Because McGee and Abby aren't dead, but you two are supposed to be and your father is the reason why."

Tony's eyes grew wide, "What? Gibbs what the hell are you talking about?"

"Gibbs, they are dead. They have been dead for fourteen years." Ziva blanched.

"This is going to be impossibly hard to believe, but I need you to listen to me for a few minutes alright?" Tony and Ziva nodded their heads in response. "That day at NCIS it was supposed to be you two that died. Eli somehow found out about the two of you and he wanted it ended, in one way or another. It was simply a coincidence that a marine couple had been murdered before his men found you, well found McGee and Abby. That was their first mistake, the second was not being smart enough to set off the bomb at the right time. They believed that they might be able to get you in the room at the right time so it went off when you were there. But they were in the room when it went off, not Abby and McGee, but we all assumed it was them because who else would have been in there? Who else was nowhere to be found?"

"Boss, hold on, where is your proof?" Tony interrupted head reeling from what he had just heard.

"Abby and McGee were put into Witness Protection. It took some digging and needling certain people but I finally found them." Gibbs took out his wallet and set a picture on the table.

Tony pulled it towards him and his mouth fell open in shock. Three people stood in the picture, the first being McGee he had aged a bit his hair turning a bit gray on the sides. Next to him was Abby, her hair was still black but instead of the trademark pigtails it was pulled back in a bun and the tattoos on her fingers were absent; they had either been removed or were covered with make-up. In front of the two stood a girl about Tali's age who seemed oddly familiar. He studied her for a moment and it eventually clicked.

"Boss, that girl goes to the school where I teach." Tony exclaimed pointing to her.

"You sure DiNozzo?" Gibbs questioned leaning forward in his chair.

"Yes, I'm positive. Boss, that's not their kid is it?"

"One in the same, her name is Izzy." He answered. "I went down there the other week. Scared McGee half to death."

"Gibbs, if that is their daughter then that would mean that they live in the same town as us. That is impossible." Ziva whispered, resting her head in her hands.

"Not necessarily Ziva…" He stopped short and his head snapped toward the doorway.

"Boss?"' Tony prompted confused.

Gibbs held a finger up and slowly rose it up his ear; _listen_. Tony did and at first he didn't hear anything but all of a sudden there was a huge thump, some rustling and then a muffled scream. In an instant all three of them were upstairs, Tony was only halfway up the stairs when he heard Ziva say something about a broken window and Tali being gone. He sprinted back down the steps and out the door, stepping outside just as the back door of a black SUV slammed shut. The tires squealed as they began to take off, Tony ran after it getting as close as he could; he wasn't going to let these people get away with his daughter. He focused in on the back license plate, he knew there was slim chance of catching up with the SUV, but he at least had to get something. _983 TVIK_, Tony repeated the sequence over and over again in his head as he kept running, and somehow he found himself behind the car, almost against the bumper. He didn't know if it was adrenaline or if he was actually in shape, but at the moment it didn't matter. Tony focused on the handle on the hatch and prayed hard as he launched himself at the car.

He let out a sigh of relief as his hand clasped the handle on the hatch and his other wrapped around the back of the vehicle. He pressed his face against the glass and could barely make out the struggling shape of Tali. The SUV had a two-door hatch so Tony shifted over and took a deep breath before wrenching the door open. Adrenaline took over as he launched himself at the nearest body. He threw punches left and right, and he faintly registered Tali screaming in the background. Tony felt like he was being pushed backwards toward the open end of the SUV so he began fighting back even harder, but it was in vain. There were at least three men in the back and his adrenaline was wearing off, but as he was pushed towards the back of the car he punched the man closest to him as hard as he could in the face.

"Damnit!" The man yelled in a thick Israeli accent, pulling out a gun. "Son of a bitch."

Tony heard the gun go off and felt a searing pain hit his right shoulder as he was pushed out of the back of the SUV. He hit the ground hard and fast, the momentum causing him to continue to roll even after he had hit the ground. Tony locked his jaw to keep from yelling as he put pressure on the shoulder where he had been hit. He couldn't tell how much blood he had lost or was losing but his vision began to blur until he could barely see a thing. He tried to stay awake but the darkness at the edge of his vision was more inviting then the pain he was experiencing at that moment. Tony could no longer fight his heavy eyelids and let them slide closed, welcoming the darkness that came with them.

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><p><strong>AN: Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated in a while but I had a very busy Christmas. Anywho, hope you liked it and please send me a review. Happy New Year, whether it is already 2012 where you are or whether it will be in just a few short hours! **


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

As Ziva stood in the empty bedroom, glass lying in shards just under the window she felt like her world was falling down around her. Tali was gone and after what Gibbs had just told her she had a suspicion about who had taken her. She heard the floor creak by the doorway, but didn't turn around to see who it was.

"Ziva…"

"No Gibbs, I do not want you to tell me this will be alright." She paused taking in a shaky breath. "You should not have to tell me this will be alright, because this should not have happened. I promised myself when she was born that I would never let her get tangled up in this mess and now…"

Ziva stopped midsentence as she heard the familiar sound of a gun letting off a round and tires squealing shortly afterwards. She ran to the window that faced down the street and her stomach lurched as she saw him lying on the pavement.

"Tony."

Before she even realized what she was doing she found her feet were carrying her out the door and she was running down the street at a sprint towards him. Ziva reached him and fell to her knees beside his head; he was still breathing but his eyes were closed and blood covered the ground under his right shoulder. With shaky hands she unbuttoned his shirt and slid the sleeve off his arm. She quickly slipped her thin, cotton jacket off and pressed it against the bullet wound, but in mere seconds it was soaked through with blood. _Were shoulder wounds really supposed to bleed this much? This isn't right, this can't be happening not Tony too…_

"Calm down, he's going to be fine." She whispered to herself, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath.

Ziva opened her eyes and tried to reassess the situation. She removed her bloodied jacket from his arm and began looking for something she could use to tie above his wound that would stop blood from flowing to it. Her fingers brushed against her belt and she froze, an idea formulating in her mind. Ziva hurried to un-hook the belt then slipped it off her waste and slid it around Tony's arm. She pulled the piece of black leather tight above his wound and shoved hard on the metal prong so it made a hole in the belt. Ziva watched Tony intently and as the bleeding began to slow, color crept back onto his face and his green eyes fluttered opened.

"Ow." He moaned quietly as he turned his head toward her. "Hey, Zee."

"Hey?" She questioned tears forming in her eyes as her adrenaline began to wear off and the reality of the situation hit. "You just got shot and the first thing you say is hey?"

"Mmm…yeah I guess." He grunted trying to move to a sitting position.

"Don't, you'll make it worse." Ziva said gently, placing a hand on his shoulder the motion causing a few tears to trickle down her face.

Tony lay back down on the pavement and reached his left hand up to stroke her face. "I'll be fine, and…and she'll be fine because we're going to find her. Don't worry Zee."

"Tony how…" She was interrupted at the sound of someone approaching them.

"Hey Gibbs." Tony grunted nodding behind her; Ziva turned around, wiping her tear stained cheeks.

"You alright DiNozzo?" He asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

"Yeah, just a flesh wound. Nothing to worry about." He replied nonchalantly.

"Did you…"

"Yes, already called there's a bus on the way now." Gibbs said, answering Ziva's unspoken question.

"You know this reminds me of this movie I saw once…"

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><p>Tony stared up at the ceiling of his hospital room the next morning, his mind buzzing with millions of thoughts. Ziva and Gibbs were currently out of the room talking to his doctor about recovery and the like. He had not needed surgery thankfully, but he wasn't supposed to perform any strenuous physical activity for the next two weeks. <em>Fat chance. <em>If he was going to get Tali back he would be as strenuous with his physical activity as he had to for all he was concerned. After Ziva and Gibbs had left the room he had been silently contemplating last night's events and Tony had come up with a pretty good idea as to who had taken Tali and his name was Eli David.

After the conversation that had taken place last night it made absolute sense. Eli was hell bent on training Tali at whatever cost and Tony also had a sneaking suspicion that the power hungry man was using this as a way to get back at his daughter, who in the years since coming to America had turned soft in his eyes. He wished that he was surprised at this turn of events, but when Ziva had suddenly walked back into his life only two short days ago he had already begun to slip back into the old habits that came with his old job. This reminded Tony that he should probably call the school and let them know he wasn't going to be back for a few weeks, maybe not even at all.

Tony grabbed his cell phone off the table in front of him and called the school. It was a rather short conversation that he had with the principal, he told her he was quitting and when the woman prodded for a reason why he just told her it was complicated. When he hung up the phone, he felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest because now it was one less thing to worry about. He set his phone down on the table just as the door to his room opened.

"So?" he asked as Ziva walked in.

"You are not supposed to run, work out, or do anything extensive for the next couple of weeks." She answered pulling up a chair to the bed then gestured her hand toward the phone in front of him. "Who did you call?"

"The school." Tony replied simply. "I quit."

"You what?" She asked incredulously. "Why would you do that?"

"Well considering what has happened in the last twenty-four hours it seemed like I wasn't going to be back for a while and when we do find Tali I don't really want to go back." He answered looking into her chocolate brown eyes.

"Why is that?" Ziva continued questioning him, holding his gaze for a second before looking away.

"Teaching never really fit, I mean I liked it, but it's not what I really want to be doing." He paused looking for the right words. "I guess part of me never left NCIS, the longing has always been there to go back and now, though the circumstances aren't great, I have the chance to go back and I'm going to take it."

"I guess that makes sense." She said slowly, a look of contemplation on her face. "I have felt the same way multiple times over the years. Maybe I should do the same."

"Quit?" Tony asked, raising his eyebrows. "Where do you work anyway?"

"I'm a secretary at the law firm in town."

"Really, Ziva David, ninja extraordinaire; a secretary? Impossible." He gave her a crooked grin.

"Is it not possible for me to work at a normal job?" She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to hide the smile that was tugging at the corners of her lips.

"Nope." He said matter-of-factly, causing Ziva to huff.

The door opened again and this time it was Gibbs. "C'mon DiNozzo, let's go."

"You got them to let me out already?" Tony asked surprised.

"Yep, told 'em we had an important job to do." The older man laid a pair of light blue scrubs in front of him. "You're stuck into those until we get back to NCIS."

"We're going back to NCIS?" Ziva asked, as Tony got up to go to the bathroom and change.

"How else do you expect us to find Tali?"

"I guess you're right."

Tony listened to the conversation as he quickly undressed, and gingerly put on the pair of pants and shirt, taking his arm out of the sling the doctor had put him in to get the shirt on. He finished putting the sling on as he walked out.

"Alright, let's get out of here."

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><p><strong>AN: Hey guys! Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but this past few weeks have been stressful and I have had a very little amount of free time. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will update when I can! Reviews are appreciated :)**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Tali slowly blinked her eyes open and as the fog of sleep began to disappear for a brief second she thought she was back at Gibbs house, but then she felt the ropes that kept her tied her hands behind her back and her feet tied together. She looked around the dark cargo hold of the small plane, trying her hardest to keep her tears at bay. Tali didn't know how long she had been asleep, but she knew she had fallen asleep an hour or so after being thrown in the back of the plane, when the reality of her situation had finally sunk in. She leaned her head against the wall and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. Yeah she had been kidnapped, but Gibbs and her mom and dad were going to find her, they used to be special agents, this kind of thing was what they had done for a living.

Tali tried to keep this thought in her mind as she felt the plane begin to descend. She lifted up her hands and wiped her face on her arm, she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of seeing her cry. After about fifteen minutes the plane hit the tarmac jostling Tali and she was thankful there wasn't any luggage or crates back there with her. She stiffened as she heard the lock click and the door slowly open, letting in the first sliver of light she had seen in hours.

One of the men from the SUV walked in, he didn't say anything as he cut the rope binding her feet and yanked her arm roughly so she stood up. As he pushed her through the door into the main area of the plane where the other men were seated; something welled up inside her and she turned around sharply and kneed him in the gut. Tali heard him gasping for breath and a small smile broke out onto her face, but her action soon proved to be a mistake. It all happened in a matter of seconds; one of the men cursed in Hebrew as he threw her to the floor and began punching her in the face. Eventually someone pulled him off of her and she was all but dragged off the plane, then bound, gagged and thrown in the trunk of another SUV.

Tali's salty, hot tears mixed with warm, scarlet red blood that was slowly dripping down her face from her nose and forehead. The man had worn several rings on both hands and she tried not to think about the state of her face or the pain that was emanating from each and every scratch. Instead, Tali began to listen to the conversation trying to figure out why she had been taken and after about fifteen minutes she had heard enough to make her stomach churn. She tuned out there voices and went over the information again. There were four men in the vehicle, all hired by her grandfather to track her down and bring her back to Israel. They had been sent in to replace the team that had been chasing her and her mother for the past ten or so years, which made all the moves around Europe make sense finally. The part that really made Tali's skin crawl was the fact that her own flesh and blood had hired these men to hunt her down at all costs, for reasons unknown to both her and her captors. They didn't seem to mind though, as long as they got paid.

The ride did not take long, it had been twenty minutes at the most when the hatch was thrown open again and Tali was grabbed out of the trunk. This time after the ropes binding her feet were cut she did not fight, because she knew it would do her no good. She didn't pay much attention to her surroundings, she just knew it was hot, sandy, and that she was being taken into what looked to be an abandoned warehouse or office building. Two men dragged her through a maze of hallways until they eventually reached their destination and threw her into a small room and slammed the door shut behind her.

Tali landed on the hard concrete with a thud; there would definitely be bruises on her side in the morning, _Though, _she thought_, those are the least of my worries._ She crawled over to the wall closest to her and leaned against it resting her still bound hands on her knees, laying her head on them. Time passed slowly, or maybe it was quickly, at this point it was hard for her to tell but eventually she heard the metal door open up once again. Someone came to stand in front of her but she did not look up.

"_Shalom._" Still she did not look up and the man chuckled. "Why don't we try English then?"

Tali's eyes grew wide, she had heard that voice before; a very, very long time ago. So slowly she looked up and a fresh wave of tears welled up in her eyes as she saw him. "Grandfather?"

He looked down at her and as his eyes fell upon her bloodied face the smile disappeared from his face. "What has happened? Did they do this to you?"

She merely nodded as he bent down and took out a handkerchief, gently dabbing at her cuts.

"They were not supposed to harm you, only bring you here to me." He said angrily.

"Why?" She asked staring into his dark eyes. "Why did you take me away from _Ima_?"

"I see you still know some Hebrew then." He commented deflecting her question.

"_Sabba_." She pressed.

Eli sighed. "I brought you here so that you could be trained. Granted we are starting a little late, but you are a David so it should not take you long to catch up. Your mother did not want you to be trained because she has become soft. This was the only way."

"Trained? Trained for what?" Tali questioned confused, she knew her mother had been Mossad, as Gibbs had referred to it, but she didn't know what exactly that entailed.

"You will learn in time _hakatan sheli_." He answered standing up and walking toward the door. "I will send someone with food in a little bit."

"_Sabba._" She called, causing him to pause at the door.

"Yes?"

"I am no longer your little one." Tali said anger lacing her words as she stared daggers at him. "I am fourteen years old, and….and I am a DiNozzo, not a David."

"Well then, I see how this is going to be. I am sorry you are choosing this, Talia." He replied all traces of caring had left his features from where they had been only a moment ago.

"I am sorry too." She spat back.

He closed the door without another word and Tali knew there would be no food coming in a little bit, not now and as her stomach growled part of her regretted her words. But as she looked at her surroundings the angry and betrayed part of her spoke louder than her stomach and she knew that every word she had spoken had been true. She was glad she had said what she had, because she knew deep down that her grandfather didn't care about her, whatever he wanted her trained for it seemed that he was willing to go to any lengths to see it through. Even if that meant completely breaking his granddaughter's entire being into a million pieces, because as each minute passed Tali's hope and faith slowly began to chip away.

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><p><strong>AN: Hey all! Thanks to all of you who wished me less stress in the coming weeks, I really appreciated it I used some more Hebrew terms in this chapter, Sabba meaning grandfather and hakatan sheli, meaning little one. So I hoped you liked this chapter and I would love to hear some feedback!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Okay so…..I suck royal hippogriff. I am the worst person in the world and I cannot apologize enough for my horrible lax in updating. **

**So to make up for this I have decided to do something which involves you, my readers, with the story. As you all have noticed none of my chapters have titles. In the past I have titled chapters with songs or poems, anything that I thought related to the chapter, but for some reason with this story I haven't been able to come up with any titles for the chapters. This is where you guys come in! For the past twelve chapters, this one as well, in your review I would love to hear your ideas for titles for as many chapters as you want. Once I'm pretty sure that all of the reviews are in I will pick my favorites and go back and change the titles, then in the next chapter I'll announce which ones I picked so you guys don't have to go back through each chapter. This will continue for the rest of the story and I'm hoping it will force me to update more frequently so you guys can see which title won. Also if the title you submit is the title of a song let me know so I can listen to it.**

**Alright now that's over and you can read the chapter! Enjoy!**

Chapter Thirteen

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to reveal the familiar NCIS bull pins. Ziva followed Tony and Gibbs out of the elevator, as she heard the familiar sounds and saw the familiar sights, she felt as if she was finally coming home. She watched as Tony began to walk over to his old desk, but Gibbs stopped him.

"DiNozzo." The older man barked.

"Yeah boss?" he turned back confused.

"What're you doing?" Gibbs questioned, eyebrow raised.

"Well, I was just…"

"If you two," He interrupted glancing back at her. "want your jobs back like you were talking about on the way her, we have to talk to the director first. Plus there's got to be a team already working there, time didn't stop when we left."

Ziva smirked as Gibbs continued walking towards the stairs and Tony caught up with them. "I should've known it wouldn't have been that easy." He whispered and she laughed quietly.

"The next fifteen minutes are going to be extremely anti-easy." She whispered back, they both caught the meaning behind her words and their smiles disappeared as they walked into the director's office.

They followed Gibbs as he ignored the secretary and went straight in to Jenny's office.

"Jethro what're you…" she trailed off as Ziva and Tony entered. "Why are you all here? Tony what happened to your arm? Where is Tali?"

Ziva stiffened noticeably at the mention of her daughter. "That's why we're here." She paused taking a deep breath. "Last night Tali was-she was take-I mean she was…"

She felt Tony's hand on her shoulder and she knew he would finish for her. "Last night some men, who we believe to be working for Ziva's father kidnapped Tali. One of them shot me when I went after them."

"What? How?" She asked, standing and joining them at the table where Tony had led Ziva over to. "Why do you think this was Eli's doing."

Gibbs glanced at Ziva and she nodded silently. "Eli has been chasing Ziva and Tali for years trying to get them back and train Tali for Mossad. We think he's finally succeeded."

"I guess that makes since." Jenny nodded her head slowly. "Should I send CSU over?"

"Probably a good idea." Gibbs agreed. "There's something else, though." She nodded for him to continue. "Yesterday I told you that Abby and McGee were still alive." He paused taking the picture he had shown Ziva and Tony yesterday out of his wallet. "They were put into Witness Protection without any of us knowing, except for Ducky."

"Ducky?" Tony questioned confused.

"He would've figured out that the bodies weren't Abby and McGee and that's a problem for WPP, so they had him lie." Gibbs explained.

"How do you know that?" Ziva asked, eyebrows knitted together.

"After I went to see them I called Duck, and he confirmed my suspicions."

"So Ducky knew they were alive and he didn't tell us?" Jenny balked.

"If Duck thought they were in danger he wouldn't tell anybody, which is part of the reason why he quit when they went into WPP. He didn't want anything to slip out." He answered leaning back in his chair.

"Okay, so they're still alive, which is amazing, but what does this have to do with Eli David?" She questioned looking between Ziva, Tony, and Gibbs.

Ziva just stared at her hands in deep contemplation as Gibbs explained that the explosion that had supposedly killed Abby and McGee was actually meant for her and Tony and how they had used the man who had killed two marine couples to make it look like Abby and McGee's 'deaths' were just part of the serial killings.

Deep in thought part of her kept telling herself that everything that her father had done shouldn't surprise her. Her father was cunning, impatient, and demanding;he did whatever it took to get his way. But, and there was always a but, part of Ziva could not believe that he had gone to such lengths. First he tried to kill her off, tie off a loose end, and at one point in her life it would have made perfect sense to her. She had killed her own brother, because he was no longer of use to Mossad. Then she just had to go back into his waiting arms full of false love and caring. When she eventually saw through his façade, saw that he only let her back in because she had brought him a new 'soldier' to train, she left. But that wasn't in Eli's plans, so he made Ziva's life a living hell. Forcing her to move every few months, rent apartments and take out credit cards in false names. Now they were here, without Tali, because he had finally gotten his way, just like normal.

"Zee?" Tony's voice startled her out of her reverie. "You okay?"

"Yes." She replied quickly, but he still looked unconvinced. "I am fine, I just zoomed out."

He chuckled. "Zoned out, not zoomed."

"Well while you were zoned out," Jenny said giving her a small smile. "Tony told me that the two of you were hoping to get back on a team?"

"Yes, if you think that is possible we would love to be back with NCIS, especially since it will make it easier to find Tali." She answered, glancing at Tony who nodded in agreement.

"Well as it just so happens the team that took over when you left is heading to Rota, Spain for a job so if Gibbs wants to take over as head of the team again, you can most certainly come back." Ziva turned her gaze on Gibbs who was sitting beside Jenny across from her and Tony.

He gave them a nod and a grunt which in 'Gibbs speak' meant, "Sure."

"Thank you Director." Tony stood and shook her hand, Ziva repeated the same motion. "We're going to go down and start tracking down Tali."

He surprised Ziva by taking her hand and leading her down to the bull pin. As they entered the familiar area a woman with long strawberry-blonde hair was just finishing cleaning out Gibbs former desk and she turned when she heard them approach.

"Hello, I'm Special Agent Barrett. Can I help you with something?" She asked politely smiling widely at them.

"Hi, I'm Tony and this is Ziva." He said gesturing to her. "Actually we're your replacements."

"Oh, I didn't know the director had already found a new team." Barrett picked up the cardboard box full of her belongings and then a look of recognition dawned on her face. "Wait a minute! You're Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David! Is Gibbs here too?" She exclaimed looking around for the older agent.

"Um…yes. What have you heard about us?" Ziva asked cautiously.

"Nothing bad, just stories from when you guys used to work here. Like when Tony went undercover and almost got blown up. You were so brave." She gushed.

Tony shrugged, "It wasn't that big of a deal."

The young women's smile faltered a bit. "But you…"

"It was nice meeting you Agent Barrett." Ziva interrupted with forced smile, knowing Tony most likely did not want to talk about what had happened.

"Yes, you too." She replied then turned to Tony. "See you around?"

"Spain's pretty far away. But it was nice to meet you." He replied politely, moving away from the two women as he took a seat at his desk.

"Oh, okay. Well bye." Barrett muttered heading towards the elevator.

Ziva walked over and sat on the edge of his desk. "She was nice."

"Yeah I guess." Tony swiveled absentmindedly in his chair.

"She seemed to like you." She continued, trying to figure out why Tony had not flirted with the woman like she had so obviously been doing with him.

"Really?" He asked, a serious look of doubt on his face. "I didn't notice anything."

"Are you being serious, Tony?" She asked incredulously. "She was not that subtle with her attraction towards you. Plus she was very pretty, you usually notice these things."

"Maybe I just didn't notice because there was someone more beautiful in the room."

Tony's emerald green eyes stared into her brown ones and Ziva let out a small gasp. Those words were not at all what she had expected. She was suddenly overwhelmed with a flurry of emotions and looked away quickly, inspecting a small snag in her cargo pants intently.

After a moment Tony cleared his throat. "Why don't we get to work on finding Tali? I memorized the plate number from the SUV last night while I was chasing it, why don't you put a bolo out on it?"

She looked back up at him, "Why can't you do it?"

He smiled playfully at her then gestured to his right arm. "I can't really do much, being tragically injured and all."

Ziva just rolled her eyes and got up, walking over to her own desk. She started up her computer then looked back at him. "Alright what was it?

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><p>"Agh!" Ziva slammed her fists down on her desk.<p>

After three, almost four hours of searching for anything that would help them figure out where the men had taken Tali they still had nothing. The SUV had been rented from a company under a fake name and there were conveniently no security cameras in the building that would give them a good look at the men. For ten minutes Ziva had been trying to get access to her father's email and bank accounts as Tony watched over her shoulder and Gibbs sat at his desk quietly.

"We might as well just face the facts." Tony said, leaning back on the cabinet behind her desk.

"And what are these 'facts' Tony?" Ziva retorted her voice muffled because her head was lying face down on her desk in defeat.

"We need McGee and Abby. Or as I like to call them McGabby." He answered, with a crooked grin.

"McGabby? Where did you get that?" she questioned, looking up at him confused.

"It's a combination of their names." Tony said as if it was as simple as two plus two. He turned to Gibbs. "Well Boss?"

He sighed rubbing a hand over his tired eyes. "We'll go back to my place first so you can put on some real clothes, then we'll head out so we can be there by morning."

"Wooh! Roadtrip!" Tony hopped up and walked quickly over to the elevator.

Ziva rolled her eyes as she shut off her computer. "One minute he's a mature adult and then next he is acting like a five year old." She muttered, desperately wishing Gibbs would give him a head-slap.

She grinned as they got into the elevator and heard Gibbs' hand make contact with the back of Tony's head. "Hey!"

"You deserved that." Ziva whispered smirking at him.

**A/N: So I know it seems like Tony is handling this whole situation rather oddly, but I promise his attitude towards everything that has happened will be explained soon. Also I know I made Barrett seem kind of desperate and overly flirty, but I hated her guts when she was on, so sue me :) Anway, hoped you liked this chapter and please review!**

**P.S. Anybody seen the preview for the 200****th**** episode Tuesday? If you haven't go watch it and if you have who else hopes that is a TIVA baby Tony is holding? **


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hey guys! So I was a bit dissapointed that more people didn't give me their ideas on chapter titles, but hopefully you guys will start doing that? :D The one person who did give me a chapter although was ziva-abby11 with the title She's Always A Woman for chapter four. **

**Alright well please review with title ideas and I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

** Oh and this is a flashback chapter, just in case you were confused :)**

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><p>Chapter Fourteen<p>

_Ziva walked down the hall to their apartment slowly, Tony's arm rested protectively around her waist. As she came to stop in front of the door she began fumbling around in her purse for her set of keys and she sighed as they clattered to the floor in front of her. Ziva bent down to pick them up, stood back up and tried to quickly unlock the door, but her grip loosened and they fell from her hand. All her emotions and frustration from the past week seemed to hit her all at once and she didn't know if she wanted to scream or cry. _

_Apparently it was the latter; tears silently fell down her cheeks as she tried to hold back a sob. She closed her eyes tight; Ziva David didn't cry especially not in front of Tony. She bent down once again to pick up her keys but Tony stopped her, he quietly swiped them off the floor and unlocked the door with ease._

_Ziva entered the dark apartment and turned back to him. "It's almost noon, are you hungry for…"_

_Tony stopped her midsentence, engulfing her in a tight embrace. She stiffened at first, but as he began rubbing soothing circles on her back, she let her walls come crashing down. Ziva sobbed into his chest and she briefly thought that it was a good thing that his shirt was black; otherwise it would have been stained by her mascara. As the tears streamed down her face and the grief overwhelmed her, she barely registered the fact that Tony had picked her up and was carrying her back to their bedroom. He sat her down on the bed but she stood back up, receiving a questioning look in return._

"_I-I have t-to get out of th-these clothes." She gestured to her black dress and tights, he nodded in understanding._

_He turned her around so he could unzip her dress and she murmured a thank you. She slipped the black garment off and took off her tights. Ziva didn't like wearing black and she didn't understand why Abby enjoyed wearing the color so much. She stiffened, Abby didn't wear black anymore, she used to wear black because now she was dead. Ziva began to sob even harder and when Tony turned back to her after having changed into more comfortable clothes, one of his big OSU t-shirts in hand for her to put on, he looked confused. _

"_Zee?" He put a hand on her shoulder and she laid her own over it._

"_I was j-just thinking ab-about Abby." She hiccupped._

_She heard him sigh wearily, then his arms wrapped around her and he rested his head on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Zee. I know she was your best friend."_

_Ziva took a deep breath and leaned her head against his. "I just don't understand why this happened."_

"_I don't think we'll ever understand why. Tim and Abbs didn't deserve this." He held the grey t-shirt out in front of her. "Here, thought you'd be more comfortable in this."_

"_Thanks." She slipped the shirt over her head before laying down._

_She laid on her side and when Tony got in be he pulled her to him, resting his arm across her stomach. They laid in silence for a while, it was only noon but they were both exhausted from the days events and Ziva soon fell into a deep, restful sleep._

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><p><em>She woke up a few hours later and turned over to snuggle into her boyfriend but she found his spot empty and cold, meaning that he was up and had been for a while. Confused she got out of bed, glancing at the clock on the nightstand registering that it was five pm. She left the bedroom and walked down the hall to the kitchen; she poked her head in but didn't find him there. Ziva continued down the hall to the living room where she found him pacing back in forth in front of the coffee table.<em>

_She leaned against the entryway into the living room. "Tony?"_

_His head snapped up at the sound of her voice, but this sudden movement interrupted his rhythmic pacing causing him to trip over his own feet and he fell to the floor with a loud thump. Ziva allowed a small laugh to escape her lips as she walked over and sat on the floor against the coffee table where Tony had recovered and was now sitting._

_She tried to hide her smile as he threw her a sidelong glance. "Shut up."_

"_I did not say anything." She turned to him smiling widely and his face broke into a crooked grin._

_He placed his hand on the side of her face and gingerly stroked her cheek with his thumb. "It's good to see you smile again."_

_Ziva closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, but at his words her smile slowly faded away. "I do not feel that it is okay for me to smile."_

_Tony's hand dropped from her face and she opened her eyes; she was startled by what she saw. His eyes were stony and they stared at the opposite wall with a powerful look of hatred. Every muscle in his body seemed to have tensed up and his fists were clenched beside him on the floor._

"_Motek?" She prompted quietly._

_Ziva cautiously laid her hand on top of his, stroking her thumb against the taught skin. She had never seen him like this and it scared her. After a few minutes of silence Tony slowly began to relax and the hand she was stroking unclenched._

"_I'm sorry." He said quietly, turning back to her. "It's just I get so angry. I've mostly been upset with what has happened but sometimes when I think about what that bastard did to them I just get….mad."_

_Ziva placed a soft kiss oh his cheek, then leaned her head against his shoulder. She didn't need words to let him know that she was there for him, and she knew what he was feeling. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a silent gesture that she interpreted as a thank you. Silence fell between them for a few minutes, until Ziva remembered why she had come to find him in the first place._

"_Why were you out her pacing?"_

"_I woke up and I started thinking about some things and I just needed to get up and walk around the sort things out." Tony explained._

"_What were you thinking about?" she asked curiously._

_He sighed. "It was nothing."_

_Ziva turned her head so she could see his eyes; he was lying. "You can't fool me that easy Tony?"_

_His lips quirked up into a small smile, "How is it that you can always tell when I'm lying."_

_She gave him a small smile in reply but her face turned serious. "Tony, what were you thinking about?"_

_He leaned his head against the table and stared up at the ceiling. "I-I think we should leave."_

"_Leave?" her eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Leave what?"_

"_NCIS, D.C….everything." Tony whispered._

"_What? Why?" She sat up straight, startled at what he was proposing._

"_It just doesn't feel right anymore, living and working in the same place and not having McGee and Abby here." He took her hands in his own and looked into her eyes. "Today after the funeral, Gibbs and I, we talked." _

"_Talked? About what?" _

"_He told me that he was resigning." Ziva's eyes grew wide. "I know, I didn't expect it either, but then he told me why and I understood. Gibbs is feeling the same way I feel. We both agreed it wouldn't be the same working at NCIS without them. Not to mention how it would feel when they are replaced with meaningless probies."_

"_But, I still don't understand how you can want to leave. You've lived and worked in this city for five years, and now you just want to pick up everything and leave?" she asked incredulously. _

"_Yes, I do." He stood up and walked down the hall towards their bedroom. Ziva followed him and entered the room to find him throwing clothes into a duffle bag on the bed._

"_Tony? What on earth are you doing?" She exclaimed as he moved back and forth between the closet and the bed._

"_I'm packing." He said matter-of-factly. "I thought you agreed with me."_

"_What? No." She approached him and laid her hands on his arms stopping his flurry of activity. "I asked why you wanted to pick up and leave and you took that as an agreement. The last thing I want to do is leave D.C." _

"_But Abby and McGee…"He began._

"_Abby and McGee are gone and that is absolutely horrible, but I can't leave. This is the first real home, real family I have ever had and I just can't pick up and leave all of that." Ziva interrupted._

_Tony's face fell. "But-and as tragic as this is-part of that family is gone now. Gibbs is leaving and from what I've heard Ducky is thinking of doing the same. It's just you and me."_

"_Tony, I love you," She placed a hand on the side of her face. "but I can't do this."_

"_Oh." His jaw clenched. "I see." _

_He walked into the bathroom connected to the room and came back out with his shower stuff and threw it in the duffle bag. _

"_What-what are you doing?" Her gaze followed him as he grabbed his wallet, watch and cell phone off the top of the dresser across from the bed._

"_Leaving." He zipped the bag up and left the room._

_Ziva hurried after him. "Leaving? What do you mean?" _

_He paused in the hallway, "You said you couldn't do this. So I won't make you anymore."_

"_Did you think I meant 'us'?" She laid a hand on his shoulder. "I love you, Tony. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."_

_He shook her hand off his shoulder. "If you really meant that you would understand why I have to leave and you would come with me."_

_Her mouth fell open at his icy comment but she soon recovered. "If I meant anything to you at all you would understand why I can't leave."_

"_Then I guess we just don't understand each other." She expected him to leave after this but he still stood in the hallway his back to hers._

_He wanted her to stop him from leaving, but the damage had already been done and with tears in her eyes she replied without thinking, "I guess so."_

_Tony continued down the hall and she didn't follow him, but remained standing in the hall alone. The door opened and slammed closed causing her to flinch and her hand went to her mouth as tears began snaking down her face and sobs wracked her body. After about ten minutes of standing in the hallway alone she went back to bed and cried herself to sleep. After weeks of utter bliss and love one man, one tragic accident had gone and undone it all._

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><p><strong>AN: Well happy belated Valentine's Day! Hoped you liked it and please review!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Hey all! So it's been more than a week and I apologize, but my big science project is finally coming to a close and I'm hoping that this will give me more free time to write. Also I am so happy and still in shock about the fact that this story has reached over 200 reviews! I honestly don't know what to say because I never expected so many people to be interested in this story. I guess all I've got is thank you, thank you to those who have reviewed, alerted, or favorited. It means the world to me and I couldn't ask for more better readers! So I hope you enjoy this chapter and please leave me a review!**

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><p>Chapter Fifteen<p>

Ziva sat in the passenger seat and stared out the window of the car while Gibbs drove past streets that were soon becoming familiar and Tony dozed in the back, snoring lightly. They had gone back to Gibbs house as planned and then began the four hour journey back to Virginia. As they turned onto Bluestone Drive the sun was just beginning to paint a pinkish-golden glow on the blue sky and rays of sunlight were poking through the clouds. Ziva glanced at the clock on the dash and noted it was barely six-thirty, hopefully they wouldn't be waking McGee and Abby up because if Tim had freaked out when Gibbs showed up alone, there was no telling what would happen now that the three of them were showing up unannounced this early in the morning. They began to slow and Ziva looked back at Tony who was still sound asleep.

She glanced at Gibbs, "He will not wake up easily."

"We'll see about that." He smirked at her. "Hold on."

Ziva instinctively gripped onto the armrest as Gibbs suddenly slammed on the brakes and they all jerked forward as the car suddenly stopped.

"Yeah Boss, m'on yer six." Tony spluttered sitting up and blinking furiously.

She stifled a laugh as she watched him through the rearview mirror. "Did you have a nice dog nap Tony?"

"Cat." He muttered a moment later after realizing he wasn't in any immediate danger. "Cat nap Zi."

"Oh, well I was close enough yes?" Ziva questioned as they all got out of the car and started up the sidewalk towards the McGee's house. She noticed that the lights in the living room were on, meaning the family was most likely awake.

"Yeah, you were close." Tony chuckled lightly and threw her a crooked grin as they came to a stop behind Gibbs who knocked on the door.

"Coming!" Ziva heard a familiar voice call from the other side of the door a few seconds before it swung open to reveal a thin man she hadn't seen in years. He looked the same, a bit older, but still seemed like the same old Timothy McGee. Though the smile he had sported when the door first opened fell and his face paled considerably. "Uh-um-wha…"

"What's wrong McSpeachless, cat got your tongue?" Tony quipped.

She rolled her eyes and decided to take a more delicate approach. "Hello McGee, it is good to see you."

"Z-ziva? T-tony? What are you guys doing here? Boss, you didn't say anything about knowing where they were last time you were here." He managed to reply.

"No I didn't." The older man mused. "They found me McGee."

"Then why are you…" Tim was cut off by another voice.

"Who was at the door Timmy?"

Ziva's eyes grew wide as Abby strode into view, in the process of putting in an earring. Though she had seen the picture of the cleaned up goth it was even more shocking to see her in person. The tattoos appeared to be covered with makeup and her black hair was pulled back into a tight bun, though the most interesting of all was her attire. To some the maroon suit jacket, caramel colored blouse, and grey pencil skirt would have been normal, but to see Abby Scuito without a spec of black adorning her body was completely alien to Ziva.

"Ziva? Tony?" Her eyes grew wide and where McGee had paled, Abby did the complete opposite and launched herself onto the porch, past Gibbs, and drug the two into a bone crushing hug. "Oh, I have missed you guys so much! Where have you been? Never mind, stupid question, how were you supposed to talk to us if you thought we were dead? Duh! You'll have to fill me in on everything, c'mon."

She grabbed their hands and began to drag them into the house but Ziva stiffened at the mention of their 'faked' death and didn't move past the entryway inside. Abby whirled around looking confused and Tony turned back to her asking with his eyes if she was okay.

McGee seemed to notice their silent exchange and spoke up. "Guys, what's going on? Why are you here?"

"There's a lot to explain McGee, but we came because we need your help." Tony answered looking between him and Abby.

Tim looked at Tony and Ziva and could tell that there was something big going on. "Alright, why don't we go sit down then?" He offered gesturing towards the living room.

Ziva nodded her head and followed Tony and Abby, taking a seat on the couch by Tony while Abby and McGee sat in a love seat in the corner.

Gibbs stayed standing, "I'll let you two explain. I'm gonna go talk to Iz."

"She's in her room getting ready for school." Abby said as Gibbs began to walk down the hall that led to the bedrooms.

"Figured as much Abbs." He called back.

Ziva heard him knock on the girl's door and listened to their exchange as she tried to prepare herself to explain to the couple, who were currently staring at her and Tony intently, why they were there. She had already broken down enough times in the past couple of days; she was not going to let it happen again, especially not in front of Abby, McGee, and Tony.

Finally she turned to them and sighed. "It is a very long and complicated story."

"It's okay Ziva." Abby gave her a small smile. "We're a very complicated family."

Ziva returned the smile, before beginning with what really happened in Abby's lab that day at NCIS. Over the course of the next ten minutes she and Tony took turns explaining everything that had happened and answering any questions they had.

"So now you need us to come back to D.C. and help you find Tali?" Tim questioned after they had gotten up to the point in the story that had led them to his house.

"Yes. I know it is a lot to ask, you have a life here now and we wouldn't want…" Ziva trailed off as Abby fixed her with a hard stare.

"Ziva David, I cannot believe you would think that we wouldn't want to help you find Tali." She scolded as she stood and came to sit by Ziva on the couch. Abby hugged her tightly and whispered in a softer voice, "We will do whatever it takes to find your daughter Zi. I know you would do the same for me and Timmy."

Ziva smiled, tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "Thank you Abby."

They pulled away from each other and Abby stood up. "Alright, let's get a move on. Tim, go tell Izzy that she needs to pack a bag and I'll go pack us some clothes. Tony you and…"

"What do I need to pack a bag for? Are we going somewhere?"

Ziva turned to see Izzy and Gibbs standing in the entrance to the living room. She studied the teen and found that although she was almost a carbon copy of Abby she had McGee's hair color and his eyes.

"Mr. D?" she asked looking towards Tony. "What are you doing here?"

"Mr. D…" McGee looked between Izzy and Tony then an amused look appeared on his face. "You're her history teacher? Since when do you teach, I thought you hated kids Tony?"

"I'm hurt McGee, I cannot believe you would doubt my teaching skills." He pouted.

Tim tried to hide his laugh with a cough. "Sorry, Tony I just never would've pegged you as moving on to something like teaching after NCIS."

Ziva smiled at his reaction. "I'm glad to see someone agrees with me."

"Well, doesn't matter anymore, I quit." Tony huffed not amused with the way his choice of profession was being treated.

"Seriously!" Izzy exclaimed, causing the five adults to turn and look at her in surprise. "I was really starting to like your class."

Tony laughed. "I'm glad to know someone enjoyed it."

Izzy smiled at him, but then she looked around the room and a confused expression replaced her smile. "Wait, what's going on? Dad why are Gibbs, Mr. D and Tali's mom here?"

"It's kind of a long story Iz." Tim began, standing up and leading her towards her room.

Once they were gone Abby turned to Ziva. "Why don't you go home and grab whatever you think you'll need?"

Ziva nodded. She had faith in Abby and Tim and hoped that it wouldn't take them too long to find Tali, but she should at least grab a few changes of clothes just in case. "That sounds like a good idea Abby."

"I'll go with you. We can go to your place first then stop at mine so I can grab a few things." Tony volunteered.

Though he truthfully did need some things from his apartment, he mostly wanted to go so that he could talk to Ziva alone. She had been putting up a pretty good act since they had gotten here, but he knew that deep down she was struggling to keep herself together.

"Okay, but I drive." A mischievous grin played at the corners of her lips and Tony shrugged.

"I would argue, but seeing as I have only one good arm…" He didn't even finish before Ziva had gotten the keys from Gibbs and was heading out the door.

Tony stood and as he passed the older man, Gibbs grabbed onto his arm. "She's putting up a good front DiNozzo, but it's not gonna last for very much longer."

"I know Boss. I've got it covered." He replied giving him a meaningful look before continuing out the door.

"Hey, DiNozzo!" Gibbs called.

Tony stopped on the porch and poked his head back in the door. "Yeah, Boss?"

"Rule twelve." He stated simply, but Tony could tell that he wasn't done yet.

"Yeah, what about it?" he prompted.

"Doesn't apply anymore."

Tony only nodded in response then turned and made his way to the car. Ziva was already in and was tapping her fingers on the steering wheel impatiently when he got in. She barely managed to wait long enough for him to get his seatbelt on before speeding off, but Tony wasn't really paying attention. What had Gibbs meant by 'Doesn't apply anymore.'? Their main focus right now was finding Tali, and even when they did find her why would Ziva ever consider taking him back? She didn't love him anymore and he didn't expect her to, not with the way he had left things. Gibbs had to have noticed the hurt in Ziva's voice when she had explained why they had ended things, he had to see that there was no way rule twelve would even be a factor at this point. So why had he said that then?

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><p><strong>AN: Hmmmm, what do you think about that? Let me know! **


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

The thirty second drive down the road to Ziva's house was unusually quiet. After parking the car, Ziva got out and led Tony up the sidewalk to the front porch. She busied her hands with unlocking the door, but her real focus was on the man beside her whose emerald green eyes were swimming with a million different thoughts and emotions. It was obvious that after she had left the house something had happened and was now bothering her partner.

Ziva turned the nob on the red front door and pushed it open with her shoulder. She began walking down the hall, but as she passed the living room she froze. She blinked her eyes once, twice, three times, but the state of her living room still remained the same.

She barely registered the gasp that escaped Tony's lips as she looked at the disheveled room. The couch, armchair, and coffee table had all been pushed out of place and papers, movies, books, and anything else that had once had a spot in this room were strewn across the floor. She remained in the doorway for only a second longer before moving down the hall to the kitchen. It was in the exact same state and the door to the garage stood ajar, barely hanging onto its hinges.

"Ziva?" Tony spoke up hesitantly, gingerly laying a hand on her shoulder.

She ignored him and continued down to the end of the hall and entered her bedroom on the left. The drawer to the nightstand by her bed was sitting on its side, its contents lying all over the floor along with clothes that had been thrown from her dresser.

"Zi, you better come here." Tony called.

Ziva turned around surprised he had not followed her into the room, but instead had gone on to Tali's bedroom. She walked out of her room, crossed the hall and came to stand beside Tony in her daughter's room. It was in the worst state of all. The mattress was tipped over on its side, her closet door hung open, all of her belongings seemed to have been thrown around the room in a fit of rage and they now lay broken on the floor. After one glance around the room she was done and Ziva barely registered Tony catching her and easing her down to the floor after her knees had buckled and no longer kept her standing up.

Tony settled her onto his lap and let her cry into his chest. He whispered soothing words in her ear and tried to keep the anger that had filled him once he had realized what had happened from showing. Right now wasn't the time to let his emotions get the best of him. He needed to be strong for both of them; otherwise finding Tali would be an impossible task.

Ziva began to sniff away the last of her tears and as she began to collect herself she realized how close they were and she pulled away from him. She hadn't been this close to Tony in years and though part of her yearned for the comfort he was offering her, she couldn't bring herself to allow him to care for her. In her mind it was her who had forced him to leave. She should have seen the way Abby and McGee's 'deaths' had affected him and gone with him like he had asked her to. But once again she had been stubborn, and had refused to leave the security D.C. had given her. Though after Tony left she realized it was not the city that had made her feel safe, it was the man who was no longer in it.

So Ziva left his embrace, knowing that wanting him to care for her was selfish.

"Are you okay?" he whispered, concern evident in his eyes.

"I am fine Tony." She looked away from him, and blinked back the tears that she thought she had already willed away. "I should have expected something like this from my father. They probably came after we left for D.C."

"Yeah, well at least there is one positive thing about all of this, you won't have to move much when you move back to D.C." he cracked a joke hoping it might lighten the mood a bit, but at the look on Ziva's face as she whipped around to look at him, Tony realized he had made a big error in judgment.

"How can you do that?" she snapped icily. "How can you sit there when your daughter is missing, her room has been ransacked by mad men, you've been shot," at this she gestured to his arm, "and I am sitting on the floor blaming myself for the whole damn thing, and joke about it?"

Tony's face hardened, "What do you expect me to do Zi?"

She opened her mouth to respond but he cut her off. "Don't you get it? Did you not pick up on why I act the way I do when things get complicated and hard back when we were together?"

Ziva remained silent. Truthfully that was the one thing she had never understood about him, how he deflected serious, sometimes dangerous topics with humor.

"If I don't joke about this, lie to myself and make myself believe that everything is going to be alright I will lose it. I can't think about what might be happening to Tali right now or the fact that if McGee and Abby can't find something in Gibbs house, or find something in your father's bank accounts that I might never see her again. I have to be strong for you and for her, because if I believe for a second that this is all going to go to hell for us then I might as well go jump of the next bridge I see." He looked away from her. "I can't handle finding you after all these years, finding out I have a kid, and then watch it all be taken away from me again."

Ziva felt her heart ache for the man sitting across from her as pure, raw emotion emanated off of him. She couldn't remember ever seeing him like this; with all his walls down and nothing hidden from her.

"Oh Tony." She put her hand on the side of his face and he looked into her eyes. "You do not have to be strong for everyone one hundred percent of the time."

"Yes I do, Zi." He whispered, placing his hand over hers. "I need to be strong for everyone so that I can find her."

Ziva tried to find the right words to say as she stared back at him. "Then let us be strong together so that we may find her together."

Tony grinned half-heartedly at her before pulling her into a hug. "Thank you, Ziva."

"You are welcome, Tony." She pulled away from him and stood up, offering him her hand. "Let's go before Gibbs calls and wonders where we are."

Tony knew that the moment was over, both of their walls had been drawn back up, it was time for emotions to be stored back in their neat little boxes labeled 'untouchable', and for masks of normalcy to be put back on. He stood up and waited by the front door as Ziva grabbed a few things before they both headed to the car. Tony drove this time as she didn't know where his apartment was and once they got there he went up alone. He hurriedly packed a few changes of clothes and as he was grabbing a pair of socks something small and black in the corner of the drawer caught his eye.

As his hand met with the small velvet box he instantly remembered what resided inside. He hadn't looked inside the box in fourteen and a half years, he never had a reason to, but something made Tony stuff it in the bottom of his gym bag. He didn't know what had possessed him to do such a thing, but as he ran back downstairs and hopped in the car, the answer was sitting in the passenger seat. He now understood what Gibbs had meant by saying rule twelve no longer mattered. The moment they had shared back at Ziva's place made it clear to him that even though it had been over a decade since they had been together, and their daughter was missing, he still loved Ziva and the look she had given him showed that she still cared for didn't mean she still loved him, and they had a lot of things to do before their relationship could even be a topic of discussion, but now Tony was even more determined to find Tali.

When they got back to Abby and McGee's and plans were made about getting to D.C. and Tony once again sat in the backseat of the car while the McGee family followed in another car, he had made up his mind.

They were going to find Tali, bring her back home safe and sound and then he was going to make Ziva fall in love with him again and they could be a real family and there was nothing and no one that Tony would let get in the way.

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><p><strong>AN: I totally just wrote that chapter in two uniterupted hours of peace and quiet on my couch and I honestly can't believe I did. Usually it takes me at least three seperate times at my computer to sit down and write a chapter I am happy with, but for some reason my creative side has actually been cooperating with me lately. Which means that I might possibly be able to get up another chapter sooner than usual :) But that is only if my muse and creativity continues to cooperate with me, so I'm not making any promises ;) **

**Anyhow, I hope you liked this chapter and please let me know by way of review!**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Hey all! So I have to admit I was a bit disappointed by the small amount of reviews I received for the last chapter, but thank you to those who did read and review! Here is the next chapter, hope you enjoy it!**

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><p>Chapter Seventeen<p>

Ziva tapped her fingers on her desk in the bull pen out of boredom; she had been sitting in the same spot for the past two hours waiting for someone to find something. They had made good time from Virginia making it to Gibb's house around 1:00pm. They'd all opted to grab lunch at a diner close to his house since there had never been time for anyone to restock the man's bare kitchen, and then the group had ended up at the agency. It was a Saturday and they were the only people on the floor, and though most times Ziva would have enjoyed the quiet, today she founding it slightly unnerving.

She wanted desperately to be able to busy herself with something that would help them find Tali, but McGee was working on her father's bank accounts and Tony was going through his phone records. Abby was down in the lab running finger prints through AFIS and going through any other evidence that had been collected by CSU. So Ziva was left with nothing to do and it was starting to eat away at her nerves.

She stood and began to pace between the desks. Gibbs watched her intently at first, looking for any signs that she was stressed. He couldn't blame her if she was, but he didn't want her on edge. He left her alone for the first fifteen minutes, but then as his eyes travelled across the bull pen he saw that he was not the only watching her. Tony had stopped his work and was watching his partner, eyes filled with worry, and McGee looked up at the Israeli ever few minutes. Gibbs rubbed a calloused hand over his face, they certainly weren't going to make any headway like this.

"Ziva." She stopped her methodical rhythm between the desks. "Go see if Abby's got anything."

Ziva simply nodded her head and made her way to the back elevator. Once inside she hit the emergency stop button and closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and forced herself to calm down. She knew worrying every second of the day wasn't going to do anything, but it was extremely hard not to. Tali was her daughter, the only constant thing she'd had in her life for the past fourteen years, and having her suddenly ripped away was killing her. Ziva took a couple more deep breaths before pushing the red button to start the metal box once more. The doors slid open and she smiled as the familiar sound of hard rock/metal, floated out of the lab.

Ziva stood in the door a moment just observing the scene before her. Abby was back in her old clothes, her hair was back up in her customary pigtails, and the make-up covering her tattoos had been removed. She smiled and was about to walk in when Izzy spoke.

"Hey Mom?" She asked from her spot on the metal table behind Abby.

"Hmm?"

"You're gonna find Tali right? I mean you're gonna find something that lets you know who took her and then Dad, and her Mom and Dad, and Gibbs are gonna go find her and bring her back. Right?" Ziva's heart broke for her, obviously she was just as worried as the rest of them were.

Abby turned and enveloped her daughter in a hug, resting her chin on her head. "I will do everything I can to find something that will tell us where she is sweetheart. I know you two were starting to become friends."

"I think she could've been my best friend." She whispered the words so quietly that Ziva almost didn't hear her.

"Don't worry, we'll get her back Iz." Abby responded.

Ziva smiled sadly and waited until she was sure they were done talking before walking into the lab. "Abby? I came to see if you had anything." She called looking around, pretending that she didn't already know where they were in the room.

"Hey Zi." Abby greeted, walking back over to her computer. "I haven't got much yet. I'm running the prints through AFIS and I didn't find anything substantial on the other evidence collected from the room, but they did find a few hairs two short to be Tali's. I entered the DNA into just about every database in existence, which means our chances of finding a match are good, but it could take some time."

"The one thing we don't have much of." Ziva whispered, looking around the room.

Abby frowned. "Don't do that Ziva."

"Do what?" She asked, still not meeting the woman's eyes.

"Don't give up hope this early on in the process." She took Ziva's hand in her own and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We'll find her, don't worry."

Ziva was beginning to tire of people telling her not to worry, and she wrenched her hand out of her grasp and looked back up at Abby, anger flaring in her chocolate brown orbs. "Why is it that I am not allowed to worry? Why is it that I am not allowed to doubt the hope that you all seem to have?"

"Ziva, please…"

"No, Abby you don't understand." She interrupted beginning to pace about the room. "If my father is training her, than she is going through the most trying and rigorous exercises anyone could ever imagine. It came easy to me and my brother because we grew up going on ten mile runs for fun and being set in the middle of the woods to find our way out and get back home like it was a game. Tali… I don't know if she is strong enough for what they are going to put her through and if she is anything like Tony she will have said something to anger my father or one of his men by now and they aren't going to give her much food, which will make her even more weak and…"

"Would you just shut up." Ziva looked over at Izzy, her mouth hung open from stopping her rant midsentence.

"Isabelle Sarah McGee!" Abby exclaimed. "That was way out of line."

"Well I don't care." She retorted defiantly, earning a glare from her mother before turning her gaze on Ziva who just stood there perplexed. "Mrs. Da- no wait I'm just gonna call you Ziva, okay?" Ziva wasn't even able to get in a nod before the girl continued. "Standing here worrying about Tali isn't going to do anything. It's going to take some time yeah, but Tali isn't as weak as you make her out to be."

Ziva snapped out of her stunned stupor at this comment. "I never said that she was a weak person, I just said that the things they're going to put her through are going to be a huge shock to her system." She argued still confused at why she was having this conversation with a fourteen year old.

"If she was strong enough mentally to get through the two days of crap they put her through at school then I think she will be strong and determined enough to survive what these people are dishing out until you guys get there." Izzy said crossing her arms over her chest, seemingly ending the conversation.

Abby looked between the two and knew she had to remove one of them from the situation before the argument started up again. She decided she would have a better chance at ordering Izzy out of the room than the angry Israeli.

"Izzy c'mon lets go see if your Dad has any cash and we can go have some dinner from the vending machines." She shot Ziva an apologetic look as she led Izzy to the door. "Ziva, why don't you stay here and watch the computer? If it finds a match you'll be the first to know."

Ziva nodded and settled into the chair in front of the table once they had left. At first she just stared at the computer screen, willing it to find a match on either fingerprints or DNA, but deep down she knew it wasn't going to help the time go by any quicker. She walked around the lab for a bit, re-familiarizing herself with the room before venturing into Abby's office. She looked through a couple of the drawers and found a crossword book that looked like it had never been touched. She grabbed the book and a pen from the desk and settled back into the chair and began distracting herself with meaningless American trivia.

As the hours ticked by she assumed that both Abby and Izzy had gone back to Gibbs to get some rest or they had decided to give her some space. Either way she was content to have the room to herself, it meant she didn't have eyes watching her constantly to gauge how she appeared to be holding up and that in itself was a great comfort. She was about halfway through the crossword book when her eyes began to droop and she looked up at the clock on the computer; 8:34 pm. She'd been down in the lab for almost five hours and she'd been running on only about two hours of sleep the whole day. Riding all night in a car with Tony snoring wasn't the best environment in which to get a restful sleep.

Ziva yawned and conceded to let herself have a half hour nap. She set her watch to go off at 9:00 pm and went back to Abby's office to find the sleeping bag and pillow she knew the Goth had always kept on hand if they had a case that turned into an overnighter. She laid the sleeping bag out on the floor next to the table and zipped herself in. As soon as her head hit the pillow she was out and when her watch went off half an hour later she was too deep in sleep to even notice. The only thing that was able to wake her from her deep and peaceful slumber was the loud beeping of Abby's computer the next morning.

At first Ziva buried her face in the pillow, wanting the sound to go away so that she could go back to sleep. After about five seconds though, the reason for the annoying sound registered in her mind and she shot off the floor, rubbing the sleep from her eyes so she could read the screen correctly. Not only had the computer matched the sets of finger prints found in the room but it had also matched the DNA from the hair that had been collected as well.

Ziva quickly jotted down the names on a piece of paper and ran up the stairs taking them two at a time until she reached the right floor. She burst into the bull pen only to find McGee and Tony asleep at their desks, and Abby, Izzy, and Gibbs were nowhere in sight. She hurried over to McGee and shook him awake.

"Not now Abbs, m'tryin to sleep." He grumbled turning away from her.

"Wake up McGee, there was a hit on the DNA and fingerprints." She said, shaking him a bit more.

His head shot up at that and Ziva handed him the paper with the names on it as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "I'll cross reference these with your father's bank statements and phone records." He stifled a yawn before typing the names in while Ziva moved over to try and cajole Tony awake.

"Tony, get up." She shook his shoulders but he didn't budge. "Tony, get up!"

The yelling seemed to have worked as he snapped to attention, "M'on it Boss!"

Ziva stifled a laugh with her hand. "Tony, the fingerprints and DNA got hits. McGee is checking the names now."

"I told you so." He muttered blinking the sleep out of his eyes.

She frowned, her eyebrows drawn together. "Told me what?"

"That we'd find her." Tony smiled up at her and she managed a small grin.

"Guys, I think I've got something." McGee called as he stood and brought a few documents up on the plasma.

Ziva and Tony walked over and waited for him to explain what they were looking at.

"So the two guys that came into the room and took her were Yoni Rabin and Akim Machuv. Both have ties to some well-known terrorist groups in the middle east and their ring leader, Aviv Hadar has received huge sums of money from your father over the past few years." McGee pulled up the men's pictures and centered Hadar's.

"So he's the one that's been chasing Tali and Ziva all these years?" Tony ventured.

"His team has been at least." McGee answered. "Hadar also owns a private jet that made a trip two days ago from D.C. to this small airfield in Tub…"

"Tubarjal." Ziva finished.

"You know it?" McGee asked curiously.

"Yes, it is where my father used to take us and leave us to find our way back home. It was about a thirty minute drive from home and Mossad headquarters." She explained and Tony saw that she seemed to be flashing back to her childhood. "Could you pull up a map McGee?"

"Sure." With a few clicks of the remote he pulled up a map of the area on the plasma and began zooming in on different areas. "Here's the airfield, a small town just outside of that then it's pretty much deserted for miles except for…"

"Yes, that's it!" Ziva exclaimed pointing at the abandoned building McGee had stopped on.

Tony seemed skeptical. "Are you sure, Zi?"

"I am absolutely positive." She answered finally tearing her eyes away from the screen to look at him. "My father always told Ari and I that we were never to go into that building. That there were dangerous people there and we shouldn't ever go near it. I am sure that is where he is keeping her."

"Let's get moving then." They all jumped at Gibbs voice and found him standing just inside the bull pen a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Geez, Boss. How long have you been there?" Tony asked, not yet accustomed again to Gibbs knack for appearing out of nowhere.

"Long enough." He stated simply turning and heading toward the elevator. "C'mon there's a plane already waiting at the airport for us."

Tony, Ziva, and McGee gathered up their things and hurried to make it into the elevator before the doors slid closed. Once inside Tony turned to Gibbs frowning. "How'd you know we would find something?"

"Had a hunch." Gibbs answered nonchalantly.

The rest of the ride down the parking garage and then to the airport was fairly quiet. They caught a ride in a cargo aircraft that had been scheduled to leave an hour ago, but after a call from Gibbs and approval from director had been told to hold until they got there. It was already equipped with the weapons they would need and as the plan left the tarmac, Ziva allowed herself a small smile. The hope she had been pushing away for the past two days crept into her and she knew everything was going to be alright, it had to be.

She was sitting beside Tony and about a half hour into the journey her hand found his. He glanced briefly at her, but didn't ask any questions. They'd found where Tali had been taken, but Tony knew that was only step one in their mission to rescue her. Step two was going to be a whole hell of a lot harder.

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><p><strong>AN: Hopefully this extra long chapter will garner some more reviews :) Thanks for reading!**

**PS: Tuberjal is in Israel and as far as I know those names are Israeli. I just picked the city because it was farther away from the more populated areas and the place where they are keeping Tali needed to be out of the way. **


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for all the awesome reviews I got last chapter, I enjoyed reading each and every one of them. So this chapter is going to be a bit reminiscent of Truth or Consequences, but remember that because of the timeline of this story that never happened. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, it is definitely one of my favorites.**

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><p>Chapter Eighteen<p>

Tali stared down at her scratched, bloody, dirty feet blankly as rays of sunlight began streaming through the lone barred window in her cell. They'd made her run around the compound barefoot since sunrise of the previous morning and she had finally been given a reprieve a mere thirty minutes ago. Scarface would be back for her in just a few minutes; he was the main 'trainer', more like sadist, and he came for her every morning at sunrise or only a few minutes afterwards. It didn't matter to him that she hadn't been given any chance to sleep after a full day of running.

"_If you want to be in Mossad you must learn to work without having the chance to sleep."_

His voice echoed in her mind, his tan, scarred face gazed down at her condescendingly. He had spoken those exact words to her after the first day of training that had consisted of sparring until four in the morning. She had been asleep for forty five minutes at the most when he had come bright and early to start another day.

"_Well I don't want to be in Mossad, so if you would leave me alone and let me get a few more hours of sleep that would be just great." She had spat back in reply._

_He'd grinned at her cruelly, "So that's the way we're going to do this eh?"_

The rest of the day had been absolute hell. There was an obstacle course just outside the compound and he had forced her to go through it over and over again until it was pitch black outside and she had finally deemed her performance 'perfect.'

She wanted to resist them, not have them order her around like she was an animal. But when she had been thrown back in her cell after that exhausting day Tali realized that her best option was compliance if she wanted to survive until someone came to get her. _If _someone came to get her.

Tali brought her knees to her chest and buried her face in her arms. Sobs began to wrack her body and tears painted streaks in the dirt, dried sweat, and flecks of blood that covered her face and arms. She'd didn't like thinking about never being found and taken from this awful place, but if her grandfather really was as powerful as he seemed, it was definitely plausible that he had made her disappear without a trace.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the sound of the rusty doorknob turning echoed off the walls. Tali hurried to wipe her face. She might not be defying them with words or actions, but she had vowed since day one that she would not let them see her cry. She wasn't going to allow Scarface, her grandfather, or anyone else to view her as a weak, helpless girl that they had absolute control over.

Tali rested her chin on her arms and stared at the tan boots and camouflage clad legs that approached. Something in the recesses of her mind registered that Scarface's choice of clothing was a bit off; he usually wore shorts due to the heat. She just brushed these thoughts away. Why did it matter to her what he chose to wear? Worrying about it certainly wasn't going to get her out of here any sooner. The knees in front of her bent and he crouched down in front of her. She turned away from him, worry creeping its way into the forefront of her mind. Scarface never brought himself down to her level; he always came in, yanked her up, and drug her off for a new day of training. Tali could feel her heart start to beat faster as an arm, also donned in camouflage, slowly reached out to her face. This was a sign of affection and to her fourteen year old mind a gesture like this from a man like him could only mean one thing.

She jerked her head away from the offending extremity and with her own hand grabbed and twisted his until she heard a small moan of pain escape his lips. She had learned a few things from that first sparring session and even if her rebellious act meant another day of hard work she didn't care in the least. She had been taken away from her home and her family and she wasn't going to just stand by and let this man take one more thing away from her.

He wrenched his hand out of her grasp and shook his wrist out trying to rid his hand of the pain she had inflicted upon him.

"I know we haven't had much time to talk, but I'll admit that wasn't the welcome I was expecting."

There were only a few beats of silence before Tali recognized the voice and her eyes snapped up to meet those of its owner. When she found that her ears had not in fact deceived her and the face she was gazing into was not one of anger and malice, but one of love and hope tears welled up in her eyes and she threw her arms around his neck.

"Dad." It was the only word she could muster as she cried tears of joy into his shoulder.

Tony gathered his daughter in his arms and a few tears escaped his own eyes. He had never once doubted that they would find her, but actually doing so made him feel like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest and he could finally breathe again. He brushed his tears away and pulled back, an encouraging smile now gracing his lips. He wiped away a few of her tears with his thumb and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Sorry it took us so long kid." He whispered, gingerly laying his palm on her dirty cheek.

She sniffed a little and smiled at him, "No, don't be sorry. You came, that's all that matters." Tali laid her hand on top of his, and her face scrunched up when she realized something. "Us?"

He chuckled, "Well, yeah. You didn't think I was gonna come by myself did ya? Gibbs, McGee, Ziva and I all…"

"Mom's here?" she interrupted, looking around for her.

"Yeah, she's outside keeping watch." He smiled softly at her, "Speaking of which, we should probably get going. We took down the guards outside the building, but it won't be long before someone notices something's not right."

Tali nodded her head, "Okay."

"Can you walk?" Tony glanced at her feet and clenched his jaw. Whoever had done this to her better hope he didn't get his hands on them….

"I don't think so." She whispered, and Tony could hear a hint of embarrassment and shame in her words.

"Hey." He put his hand under her chin and she met his gaze. "Don't you dare act like that's your fault."

She sighed and gave him a small smile. "Alright, sorry."

Tony bit his tongue, she didn't need to apologize, but that was something they would have to deal with later. He was just beginning to place his arm under her legs when someone burst in the room, gun drawn pointing in their direction.

"Put her down! Put her down and back away slowly!" Tony cursed mentally and did as he was told.

He glanced down at Tali and tried to give her a look that was encouraging and that would let her know that he had this covered. They already had a plan in place for a situation such as this; he just had to get this guy into the right position.

"Who are you?" The man asked him as Tony backed up in the direction of the window.

"Tony DiNozzo." He answered matter-of-factly. "And who are you?"

"Doesn't matter." The man spat back angrily.

"Actually it does. I'd really like to be able to let the medical examiner know who you are when they get your body." He was almost in the right position just a few more inches to the right…

"What are you…" The bullet whizzed through the window, hit the man right in the middle of the forehead and his body crumpled to the ground.

Tony rushed over to Tali who was stunned to say the least.

"What just happened?" She asked incredulously as he scooped her up and she placed her arms around his neck.

"Gibbs." He answered simply.

They walked out of the cell and Tali allowed herself a small smile, she was never going to have to see that room again.

"Ziva?" Tony called as he walked down the hall and passed the spot where she was supposed to be keeping watch.

As he rounded the corner he saw her lying on the floor and McGee hovering over her. His stomach plummeted to his feet.

"McGee?" He called as he approached, careful not to jostle Tali too much. "What the hell happened?"

"She…" he began but Ziva leaned up to see Tony, looking slightly annoyed.

"I am fine Tony, do not worry, the bullet barely grazed my leg." She answered. He looked down at the small patch of blood on her upper thigh scrutinizing her. "Do not give me that look. McGee already taped me up and gave me a few painkillers, I will be fine."

"Patched, not taped Mom." Tali spoke up.

When Ziva realized that she was there she broke into a huge smile, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She slowly got up and tried to hide the grimace of pain as she walked over to her daughter. There were no words to say that could express the amount of relief she felt now that she could see her daughter was safe, so she just hugged her tight.

Tony smiled and didn't want to break up this moment but they really had to get going. "C'mon Zi, there'll be more time for that later. We've gotta leave now if we want to get to Eli's place before someone tells him what's happened and he high-tails it out of here."

Ziva nodded and the four of them ran out to the SUV that was still where they had left it. McGee hopped in the front and Tony slid Tali in the back seat before scooting in next to her. Ziva limped her way to the passenger seat and as soon as she was buckled in McGee took off to go pick up Gibbs.

"I don't think you'll be able to come with us Ziva." Tony said after a few minutes.

She looked back at him, "I am fine Tony. There are a few things I need to say to my father before we take him back to D.C. and he is occupied with interrogations and lawyers. I am still going with you."

Tony stared at her for a few seconds trying to discern if she was being honest with him, but he decided that it wouldn't matter if she was or not. This was something she needed to do, and Tony knew that she was too stubborn to let anyone stop her. He nodded at her in understanding as McGee pulled up and Gibbs got in the back with him and Tali.

"Everyone okay?" Gibbs asked after stowing his camouflage cover and rifle in the trunk.

"Yeah, but Ziv…" McGee began.

"Everyone is fine Gibbs." She interrupted glaring at him and he shut up.

Gibbs met Ziva's eyes in the rearview mirror and she told him with her eyes that she was fine and he couldn't stop her from going with them for step two of this mission. Gibbs nodded curtly at her and looked over at Tony who was rummaging around in the first aid kit.

He pulled out a bottle of alcohol, gauze, and wrap and laid them on his lap. "Tali, can I see your feet."

She nodded and adjusted so that her legs were on his lap and her feet dangled over his legs. Tony unscrewed the cap and frowned apologetically at her. "This is gonna sting."

"Okay." Tali closed her eyes shut in anticipation, but before the liquid was poured over her feet she felt a calloused hand slip into her own.

She opened her eyes and found that Gibbs had scooted over and she was now leaning against him, he gave her hand a small squeeze and kissed the back of her head. Tali squeezed back as Tony poured the clear liquid over her feet and every scratch on them screamed in agony. She bit her lip as he put gauze on the bottoms of both feet and wrapped them tightly. Once he was done Tali drew her legs off his lap and leaned her head against Gibbs chest. She closed her eyes and the fatigue overtook her, she was asleep within minutes.

The SUV pulled up outside of Eli's house a few minutes later and Tony glanced at his daughter sleeping peacefully against Gibbs.

"I'll stay here with Tali. You three go. Local authorities should be here in a couple of minutes to pick him up." Gibbs ordered gruffly.

Tony nodded and hopped out of the car meeting McGee and Ziva on the other side. "So how do you guys wanna do this?"

"He'll probably be in the study." Ziva replied staring at her childhood home, her face a mask to all emotions. "There will not be guards here. He is too confident for that. I will go in alone, you two cover the rear and front just in case."

She started to walk away, but Tony grabbed her hand. "Zi, I don't think that's such a good idea…"

She looked up into his eyes filled with nothing but concern and worry for her safety. "Do not worry Tony, I will be fine. This is something I have to do on my own."

He studied her for a few moments before silently releasing his grip on her hand. Tony followed her into the house and stayed by the door, while McGee went around back. He kept his ears and eyes on high alert, one sound of distress and he was going in.

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><p><strong>AN: I'm working on the next chapter right now and if I get enough reviews by Monday I'll go ahead and post it. It's up to you guys :)**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Ziva stood outside the door to her father's study and took a deep breath. Why was it that he could always make her feel like she was a nervous child? She laid her hand on the cold metal doorknob and opened the door. As she had predicted he was there, standing by the windows overlooking the garden with a glass filled with an amber liquid she knew to be scotch. He always kept a bottle in the room.

Ziva took a few steps into the room, and felt her sidearm in her waistband for reassurance. She wouldn't need it, but the weapon gave her a sense of security. She waited a few seconds for him to notice her, but he did not acknowledge her presence. She was going to have to start the conversation.

She cleared her throat and he turned towards her, a look of surprise she knew was fake, showed on his face. "Shalom, Ziva. What are you doing here? I was not aware that you were coming to visit."

"You can drop the act, I am not stupid." She spat anger rising up inside her.

"Ziva David you will not speak to me like that. You may be a grown woman but I am still your father."

"That's funny, really it is." She spoke coolly.

"I do not see how you find that amusing." An heir of condescendence rolled of him in waves. "Where is Talia? Shouldn't she be with you?"

Ziva couldn't believe what he was saying to her and she just snapped years of anger, hurt, and deceit flowing out of her at once. "Where is Tali? Are you seriously asking me that question?" She yelled at him. Her hand shot out and she knocked the glass from his hand and sent it flinging against the wall. "Tali is in the back seat of the car outside with her grandfather right now."

"What are you talking about? I am her grandfather!" He yelled back.

"You have never been her grandfather. You have never been anyone's father, or husband, or anything!" She screamed. "You have done nothing but look out for yourself and make decisions based on what is best for you. You treated Ima like she was your servant, you didn't bat an eye when she and Tali died and you made me kill Ari. We were not your family we were just pawns in your stupid sadistic game. The only time I was part of a family was when I was at NCIS. Gibbs is the only man who has ever treated me like a father is supposed to treat a daughter. McGee is like my brother and Abby my sister. Tony…"

She trailed off. Ziva honestly didn't know what Tony was right now, she knew what she wanted him to be, but she couldn't assume he felt the same way about her after all these years.

"Tony is my best friend." She knew that much was true. "He is going to be a great father and we will be a family. Usually I would say that your actions have not surprised me, but this time I am completely shocked by what you have done. I cannot believe that you would go to such great lengths to get Tali. You are lucky that Gibbs is in the car or I am sure you would be dead by now. You are lucky that we decided that you should rot in jail or I would have helped him kill you." She paused taking in a shaky breath trying not to let her emotions get the better of her. "The police are on their way now, so there's no use trying to leave now. I am going to go be with my daughter, you have five minutes to call your lawyer or do whatever you need to do and then you are going to be escorted to D.C."

Ziva left the room at that and made her way back to the front door. She'd finally done it, she had cut every tie with her father and she wanted to cry and dance at the same time. As she rounded the corner she saw Tony and it was all she could do not to full out sprint to him, but she did jog down to him and bury her face in his chest when she got there.

Tony was a little confused at first, but as she cried into his chest he realized that she had to be overwhelmed after what had just happened. Eventually the local police showed up and Tony directed them down the hall while he picked Ziva up and led her out to the porch. He sat on the edge of the concrete and held her in his lap. He whispered soothing words in her ear and hoped it would help her calm down. He rubbed circles on her back and all he could think about was how much he loved the woman in his arms, how he had always loved her, even during their time apart. How he loved Tali so much already and could already picture the three of them living together in a big house, with a dog , and a white picket fence; a family. If it was possible he thought he loved her even more after she had shown how strong she was by finally standing up to her father.

Tony waited until her tears were no more to do something he had wanted to do since she had appeared in his classroom. Had it only been a week ago? He didn't care to think any more about it as he placed his hand on the side of her face and brought his lips to hers. He poured out all the emotions he had felt in the past decade into this single kiss.

Ziva froze as Tony's lips met hers, but it was only a second before she was kissing him back. She could feel the love he put into the kiss and did her best to let her own emotions show. It had been so long since she had felt his lips against her own and the only thing that was able to pull her away was the need for air.

She stared up into his eyes, breathing heavily. "I've missed you."

It felt like the past week hadn't even happened, like they were finally meeting after all these years, just the two of them.

"I've missed you too, Zi." He grinned widely at her, resting his forehead against hers. "I love you."

Ziva smiled, how many times she had missed those words coming from his lips. "I love you too."

He kissed her again, lightly this time and began to stand up. The police had led her father away, and McGee was already back in the SUV. Tony couldn't see Gibbs for the tinted windows in the back but if he had to guess, it would be that the older man was glaring at the two of them impatiently.

"C'mon Zi, let's go home." He took her hand and helped her into the passenger seat before walking around to the other side of the car.

As they made their way back to the airport Tony sat in silence, he grinned brightly every time he caught Ziva's gaze in the mirror, but for most of the ride his thoughts were focused on the small box that resided in his pants pocket. When he had grabbed it from his apartment, he hadn't planned on taking it with them to Israel when they went to rescue Tali. But just as the little voice in the back of his head had told him to take it from his dresser drawer the same voice had told him to bring it with him.

Part of Tony knew that asking her something like this so soon after they had finally gotten back together was moving too fast, but another part of him desperately wanted to make sure that she was his for the rest of their lives. That he could not lose her like he had all those years ago.

Tony was still undecided as they pulled into the hanger. He looked over Tali who was still sleeping peacefully against Gibbs and before the older man had the chance Tony had gently picked her up and started towards the plane. He met Ziva on the other side of the car and silently gestured for her to put her arm on his shoulder for support. She refused at first but after only a few limps toward the aircraft she put her hand on his shoulder albeit a little reluctantly.

Tony just smiled, she was still his stubborn ninja. _His._ The word sunk in as everyone was settling on the plane. He looked down at Tali asleep in his lap, then over to Ziva who was strapped in and was now leaning against his shoulder. He may have missed fourteen years of both of their lives, but now that he had them back he wasn't going to miss a minute of anything. For that to work Tony first had to make something permanent.

He waited until Ziva had fallen asleep and was sure she was deep enough in her dreams that she wouldn't notice any movement to slide the small velvet box out of his pocket. He carefully removed the engagement ring from the box and delicately slipped it onto Ziva's left ring finger. He looked at the ring on her hand and felt like the last puzzle piece in his life had finally slid into place. He just hoped when she woke up she wouldn't object to his question. He let his head rest on the metal wall and drifted off quickly.

Across from Tony, Gibbs sat with a rare grin on his face. He had watched the whole scene unfold silently and knew that Ziva would accept DiNozzo's clever proposal without hesitation. She wanted a family and father for Tali, and she needed a husband and partner for herself. He glanced over at McGee who was staring down at a photo of his own family, and watched as the younger man glanced up at 'The DiNozzo Family' sitting across from him and smiled.

"Looks like everything worked out in the end, Boss." McGee said meeting the older man's eyes.

Gibbs sighed contently, "Guess you're right Tim. Not that I didn't expect it to."

"How did you know everything was going to be alright?" He questioned, and then shook his head knowingly. "Your gut, almost forgot."

Gibbs grinned widely and let out a rare chuckle. "No McGee, not my gut."

"Then how…"

"When you're a family, there are no sad endings," Shannon and Kelly's faces briefly popped into his mind, but then they were followed by a million different scenes, but a few stood out: Jenny in Paris; seeing McGee, Abby, and Izzy for the first time in years; meeting Tali; watching Tony put the ring on Ziva's finger; and finally he imagined the look on her face when she woke up and realized it was there. "There might be twists and turns in the road, but when you're a family you stick together and you make your own happy endings. We're a family McGee; I had no doubt that we'd find our happy ending."

The End

**A/N: And there you have it kids! Don't worry there will be an epilogue looking a few years into the future to see how they've progressed, but I wanted to end on a happy drama free note and this is what ended up on the computer screen in front of me. **

**I want to thank all of you who have stuck with this story, you've no idea the immense amount of joy I get when I look at the stats for this story and I see 174 alerts, 84 favorites, 33, 214 hits(holy crap to that one, I've never had that many hits!), and 249 reviews! I am unbelievably grateful for you guys and I hope you'll come back if I ever decide to write another multi-chapter NCIS fic. I'm definitely going to be writing some one-shots in the future, but only because you have given me the confidence to do so. My biggest fear when I first started writing this story was that I was going to somehow write the characters absolutely wrong and no one would even give this story a chance. But according to all your reviews, alerts, and favorites I somehow managed to get this thing right. So thank you all again and I'll get that epilogue posted as soon as I can!**


	20. Epilogue

**A/N: So there was an overwhelming consensus for a sequel and I am going to get started on writing that, but please give me at least a week or so to get it posted. I decided to go ahead and post an epilogue to lead into the sequel. Once again thanks for all your support and reviews, you guys are the best readers ever!**

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><p>Epilogue<p>

_One Year Later_

Ziva stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom she and her husband shared dumbfounded. It was impossible. It was unexpected. It was…positive. Those two intersecting pink lines stared back at her and she had no idea how to react. She had bought the test on a crazy whim when she had been at the drugstore the previous day. She'd stopped by after work because she had been feeling a little off for the past couple of weeks and was avoiding the doctor's appointment Tony was trying to convince her to make. Her plan was to talk to the pharmacist, ask what they recommended and leave. Get in, get out and go meet Tony at Tali's softball game.

Then she had gone passed _THE_ isle. The isle where young girls stood nervously fingering different brands of the test, trying to decide which one would give them the result they desperately wanted. Where confident, twenty-something's stared at the boxes fondly, hoping that they would soon be the one with the small bundle in their arms. It was not the isle 37 year olds' like Ziva frequented, women who had a daughter that would be starting high school in a few days' time, who were just married and trying to get back in the habit of being in the relationship with someone. But there had been a nagging voice in the back of her mind that had convinced her to pick up the first box she laid her hands on and take it up to the check out.

Ziva laid the white stick down on the counter and sunk down on the floor; she leaned against the wall and pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin on her arms. She and Tony had been married a year and she wouldn't deny that they had been acting like newlyweds, but she was sure they had been…covered. _99% Effective_, the label on the bottle of her birth control screamed at her and she had never hated those words more in her life.

She glanced down at her flat stomach and sighed, the anger vacating her body. It wasn't that the idea of having a baby made her unhappy, but she and Tony had never talked about having another child. Ziva knew he was still getting used to being a father to one child and a teenager at that so she had never brought it up. She never felt the need to because she had Tali and Tony and they were a family. Yes, she had thought about having another child with Tony, mostly because she knew, even though he thought he hid it well, that he longed to go back in time and watch Tali grow up. Having a baby would give him; give them, a chance to raise a child together from start to finish instead of starting in the middle.

Ziva sighed as her thoughts turned to Tali. How was she going to take this? When Tali was younger she expressed the desire for a sibling once or twice, but now she was fifteen. She was starting high school in two days and now all of a sudden she was going to be a big sister to a sibling with a huge age difference. Ziva and Tali; her daughter's namesake, had been a couple years apart, but still had managed to have a great relationship, but fifteen years? Tali would be starting college when the baby turned four and as of late her daughter had taken after Tony and becoming very involved in sports and once school started up none of them would have any free time. How were they supposed to fit in a newborn baby?

Ziva placed a hand on her stomach, "It is not that you are not wanted ahava, I just do not know where you will fit in."

She was about to get up and go occupy herself by making pancakes, it had become a tradition on Sundays, when the door to the bathroom slowly opened and Tony poked his head in.

"Hey, sweetcheeks how long've you been up?" He asked, a broad smile graced his lips for only a moment and then it disappeared. Ziva guessed she wasn't hiding her emotions too well. "Zi, what's wrong?"

She chewed on her lip nervously, she hadn't expected she would have to tell him so soon, "Well, nothing is wrong….per say."

His eyebrows drew together and he took a few hesitant steps into the room, "Okaaay…."

Ziva sighed as she stood and moved towards the counter, picking up the white stick all in one swift movement, "Here."

As she handed him the pregnancy test she could tell that for a moment he was extremely confused, but after only a few seconds an expression of understanding dawned on his face and when he looked up at her he was positively beaming. "You're pregnant."

It was more of a question than a statement. "Yes, I am pre-"

Before Ziva could finish he had picked her up and was twirling her around the bathroom. She hadn't really known what kind of reaction to expect out of him, but it certainly wasn't like this. After a couple of protests from Ziva he finally set her down on the tiled floor.

"You are happy?" She questioned, looking into emerald green eyes trying to discern if his joy was real or forced.

"Am I happy?" He repeated sarcastically. "Zi, of course I'm happy! We're having a baby, why wouldn't I be happy?"

She sighed looking away from him, "The timing is all wrong, Tali is a teenager, and you and I are not that young anymore…"

"Ziva." Tony interrupted her, gently placing his hand on her cheek, forcing her to look at him. "There is never good timing when it comes to having a baby. So Tali's fifteen, just means she'll be able to help out more. Yeah, we're a little on the old side, but so what? Instead of most parents who are worried about being able to provide for two kids, we have steady jobs and an extra room down the hall that is sitting there empty."

She looked up at him once more, but this time a small smile appeared on her lips, "We can do this?"

"We're DiNozzos, of course we can do this." He replied confidently, grinning brightly at her.

"We're having a baby." Ziva stated, this time allowing herself to feel happy as the realization sunk in.

"We're having a baby, my baby and me." Tony sang the tune softly to her and rocked her back and forth; she couldn't help the tears of joy that sprung into her eyes.

"You love Lucy." She said with light laugh.

Tony chuckled at her mistake, "Ricky loves Lucy. I love you."

She leaned up and kissed him. "I love you too."

After a few more kisses she finally coaxed Tony downstairs so she could start on breakfast. They both went to work, Ziva in charge of the pancakes and Tony in charge of the bacon. Every so often she would catch Tony staring at her with a lopsided grin on his face and she would just roll her eyes at him. Part of her thought that he was acting entirely too happy, but when Ziva realized she too was also unable to stop smiling she let him be. It was only when Tali trudged into the kitchen a half hour later, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes that they were able to tone down their enthusiasm.

They would tell Tali soon enough, so there was no need to freak her out even more by being unusually giddy. Once Tali was coherent enough to talk, Tony challenged her to a one-on-one game of basketball. She agreed readily and Ziva swore she hadn't seen two people eat so fast. She cleared their plates and began washing the sticky dishes off. As she stacked them in the drying rack she stole a glance out the window above the sink. It wasn't a very serious game of basketball; they both tried their hand at making trick shots and laughed when the ball was blatantly off target. At one point Tony caught her staring and gave her a wink and a smile before sinking a three-pointer.

Ziva smiled and placed a hand on her stomach. This definitely wasn't going to be easy, she was most certain of that, but as Tony had stated before, they were DiNozzos. They were a family and no matter what adventures were in store for them in the next nine months, they would stick together and everything would be alright.

Hopefully.

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><p><strong>AN: Hehe, a little cliffy to end this story and keep you guessing a bit till the sequel is posted. The line Tony sang to Ziva was from an episode of I Love Lucy.**


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